OK, let's see - she's received the chocolate and the card and the flowers and the ...
- Wait a minute. What else is there but a box of chocolates and a card and a bouquet of flowers?
I don't recall seeing anything different on TV and movies. I think there were a couple of men who gathered their buds together to sing a song, but do I want to cash in my chips like that? I might need my buds to help move me out IF I CAN'T FIGURE out a unique Valentine's gift.
I mean let's face it fellas. It's true - our women have received the chocolate and the card and the flowers. It's been done. And it isn't the thought or even the action that counts here. It's the sign of care. And care doesn't show up in the obligatory or the routine. Right?
So my job this year, like all years, true for all of us out there, is to find something that will stand out, something that truly speaks to the heart of the matter. Not to flatter with bombastic flair, or to placate with the ordinary.
Hearts, though common to us all, are no ordinary venture.
So search we do. Stores galore. Online Google searches. Flower stands. Bloomingdales, Macy's, Nordstroms and Nordstroms Rack, and even the last-ditch late-night effort of Target.
And after all is said and done, and all the stores are entered and bins sifted, and flower stands rummaged... what are we left with?
- That which has been here all along.
- The heart of the matter ... residing right there where you live.
- The words and sentiments that arise when one sinks in and simply remembers why you joined.
For me, I will find something cool to wrap and give of course. Gifts are wonderful and appreciated. Yet I will also write those words that don't always come through in common conversation. I will draft, in prose no doubt, the song of the soul, the music of the spheres, the metered lyrics that speak truths that flow where waters are still.
I will offer personalized words of love. And I trust that on this holiday, as true on any day that the love emerges and is expressed ... it will be enough.
Jim Ellis is a writer and producer living in San Diego, California. He can be reached at LegacyProductions.org.
