It’s Valentine’s Day! Although the origin of the holiday is sketchy; and although it was removed from the General Roman Calendar of saints in 1969 by Pope Paul VI, today we celebrate Valentine’s Day in hundreds of countries around the world. It’s a day we get to be giddy and silly. A day for chocolate, wine, extra kisses, extra hugs, flowers, dancing, music, and candle-lit dinners. One day for Love.

One day to particularly celebrate and share our  Love; one day to put aside petty annoyances that mount in our lives; one day in particular to pause and tell our someone, “I Love you”; one day to let our hair down, to let our guard down, to let ourselves romance and to be romanced; one day to put Love first.

I feel every Day should be Valentine’s Day. Why not feast on romance every day? I’m answered by a chorus of naysayers. People can’t celebrate Love every day, it seems, because life gets in the way. Life’s dirty dishes and dirty diapers; life’s vacuuming and mopping. Life’s laundry must be sorted, washed, dried, folded, and put away. There are children who whine, scream, and shout, who we schlep hither and yon, who have homework, who just need our attention; there are bosses to placate, bills to pay, phone calls to make and meals to cook, which brings us around to dirty dishes again. Where is the room for Love?

We’re taught when we begin driving that it is important to keep our eye on the road because we steer the car towards wherever we are looking. This is true in life as well. When we keep Love in sight, we always head in its direction. We can’t let the business of life, the busy-ness of life, dull the luster of Love. Our busy-ness in life produces dust or sediment, which, much like sawdust in a woodshop, soon covers the floor and everything else there. We must sweep up the sawdust, or soon be overcome by it. If we remain busy in everything but Love, the sawdust mounts and Love is lost in its avalanche.

It doesn’t take much to clear the area. Romance needn’t be expensive dinners, expensive flowers, or expensive chocolate. Love needn’t be expensive at all. Love needs only our attention. That’s it. Love can be a note tucked into his pocket or his lunch, or placed under her pillow, or on her mirror. Love can be macaroni and cheese with the children—knowing they soon will be in bed. Love can be a chili and hotdog lunch with the whole family; it needn’t be a one-on-one sport. Love can be a perfumed Love letter; you don’t have to be Shakespeare. Love means taking the time to place your Love first; before the job, before the bills, before all the mounting annoyances in our lives. Love first.

How do you keep your Love first?