As much as I like learning about how things came to be, I really didn’t want to do a deep dive into the history of Valentine’s Day for today. I’m sure it’s amazeballs stuff, but…no.
Instead, this day of the year more than any other solidifies in my mind why I love writing romance so much – to the exclusion of all other fiction genres I could pen.
If you know me you know I always say everyone deserves their own HEA ( Happily Ever After) story. I really believe this with all my heart – no VDay pun intended!
This past Wednesday I had the honor to speak in front of a Woman’s Group at a local church. It was their monthly luncheon meeting and their annual Valentine’s day celebration. Over 65 beautiful women of all ages from their 40s to 90s gathered together in fellowship and love to enjoy one another’s company and to hear me speak. I was told by the program director that this was the largest group they’d ever had for a luncheon. No pressure there, folks!
My talk was titled MY SECOND ACTS JOURNEY but it was really a treatise on why it’s important that we show love, give love, and share love with one another, especially in the times we live in, which can be so dark for so many.
I made them laugh with the ridiculous tales of my journey to publication and my crazy family stories. I made them think about their own lives when I explained why it’s important we all have that one person whom we can trust beyond all else to “cover our 6.” And yes, most of them did get the NCIS/GIBBS reference (!) I talked about the gift of words to express our feelings to one another and why it’s important we tell those we love that we do. Often. And with meaning. I explained my love of journaling and why I felt it was so necessary. I even told them that story about my first lock and key diary, the little book that solidified in my mind I wanted to be a writer. After the luncheon, one of the women came up to me and told me she was going to buy a diary/journal for her 8 year old granddaughter because of what I’d said. I have to tell you, that warmed my heart is ways too big to express.
Laughter, nodding heads, smiling faces and eyes staying open and not drifting off in boredom when you look out at a sea of faces, is something every speaker wants to see from behind the podium. Luckily, I did! No one fell asleep; no one didn’t appear engaged.
Win for me!
These beautiful women, most of whom I’d never met before and who didn’t know me as me, Peggy Jaeger- mom and wife – or as a writer, Peggy Jaeger, Author, were accepting, open with their questions, and receptive to what I had to say. True fellowship on display on this day devoted to love.
I guess the real purpose of this post is to simply state that although it’s Valentine’s day, a day typically devoted to candy hearts, Hallmark cards, and flowers, the concept of love, the act of loving one another, and being there for those you do love, is something that should be a daily, if not hourly thing.
Jesus’s entreaty, Love one another, is one request I think we can all, and should all, get behind, and practice without thought, argument, or discussion. Actions speak louder than words, but the words are so important to say and hear, too.
So on this day devoted to love, tell those people in your life you love them, that you have their 6, and that they mean the world to you.
And then do it again tomorrow, the next day, and the next……
Until next time, peeps ~ Peg
Peggy Jaeger, Author 