February...Traditionally a month of Love

So we come to the the mythical month of lovers, cupid, hearts, flowers and my personal favorite...chocolate, but this year everything is different, we are not a world where love blooms all round us like it semed to do in the days of the Hippies, free love, and a world trying to make Peace a reality. Those were it seems the 'good old days!" The "days of wine and roses" too seem to have gone off into the long ago...on a personal note that seems to make me feel old, but on a larger scale it only serves to make me more awake than ever to the things that are happening in our world!
In Israel, the Palestinians have done the once unthinkable thing and elected Hamas to power...no love there that's for certain, and meanwhile in the rest of the supposed civilized world there is a cartoon being circulated that depicts the Prophet Mohammed in an undignified manner which is reeking havoc! I read that the Danish embassy was set on fire, and there are reports of Muslims rioting or marching in the streets over this last insensitive incident! I believe in freedom of speech but there was certainly some editor somewhere in this mess that should have pulled the plug on this thing before it got to this point! No love there either!
Here in the US we hear that thousands of people are still refuges long after Katrina, and now to add insult to injury it seems that many homes will never be rebuilt and that a virtual trailer city seems to be the only solution...where is the love in giving someone a forty foot trailer to replace a house they lived in for thirty+ years?Just this morning I learned that my son, duahgter-in-law and grandsons are safe after a vicious wind storm sent two huge pine trees falling into their home and crushing their truck...Gaia seems a bit short on love too these days, dear old mother earth is out of sorts!
In Israel the government is refusing to work with the new Palestinian government Hamas and at the back door there are missles sailing through the blue skies, without a little love from someone there will never be any peace in that area of the world...even worse are the happenings between the Haredim and the government and police, with violence carried out by the rioters, deliberately and intentionally against the soldiers during the evacuation of Amona. What happens when a country becomes divided by ideaology and beliefs is not a pretty sight! No wonder the founding fathers of the United States determined that religion and politics would never mix, so they wrote into the constitution a separation of church and state! Israel of course has not formed a constitution except for what stands for one by consensus of the religious of the county...seem like they better get to work on something solid pretty soon or the violence that seems to be everywhere between the differing factions may turn into a situation like the Wild Wild West of the US frontier days! Certainly there is no love lost between the ordinary everyday citizens of Israel and the religious...they hate each other equaly ..
Then of course there is Iran who has fired up her nuclear plants and is posturing herself defensively behind a cry of "right to have" nuclear weapons, and the EU,US and others are now calling for sanctions from the UN...certainly no love story is hidden here!
So in the search of the news of the past week I found only one true story of love, somewhere a tiny baby needed new lungs and since that surgery is pretty effective on small babies if both the lungs and heart are tranplanted together, the parents of the tiny little baby whose heart had to come out decided to give the heart to another baby who needed it. That is really love! Not just for their own little hero, but for another child to live also...doctors predict that the babies will both go home within a week...LOVE at it's finest!!! The gift of life!!
One must stop and ponder how in the midst of all the awfullness of this weeks news, there was only this one story that caught my eye...isn't that a sad oritory on the state of our world?
So after much deliberation I sat out to see if there were any other really good love stories out there...but to my sad disbelief what I found was that either the mainstream press doesn't feel that "
goodness" sells papers or the news at it's best is simply awful most of the time! I will leave you dear readers to determine which point of view you believe, but not without my suggestions for a Happy, Love filled Valentines Day!
This Valentines Day Here are some easy ways to Spread LOVE:

1) Smile genuinely at the street person as you pass! They are human too.
2) Remember those whom you love in a personal way, call your mom, or put a card in your spouces briefcase, hug your aunt ( yes even the one who wears those funny plastic suits)
3. Do something nice for that person in the office you just can't stand! ( maybe secretly but still...the love flows)
4. If you don't have a special someone of your own to hug and kiss, wear a "Hug Me" button for a day...you would be surprised how many walls will fall down!
5. If you have a chance Give to someone you don't know...( the little old lady in the check out line with only a loaf of bread and some cheese...pay her bill with a little post it note to the cashier)
6. If you never give to charity look around at those near where you live to find someone in need...(you could mow a lawn for a widow or help a little boy without a father fix his bike!)
7. Laugh at everyone's jokes for one entire day, even if you have heard them before and they aren't really funny!
8. Hardest of all...stay in a bright cheery frame of mind for an entire day!
9. Say nice things to people who have not been nice to you!!!

LAST but MOST IMPORTANT

Make certain that those who are dear to you Know that you Love them!! Give valentines cards even the little packaged kind that kids use...it brightens everyones day and makes you a hero for having spread love!!!!