Check out the Valentines

If you haven't been to a good card store recently, give yourself a treat! The Valentines are FABULOUS this season! If you were a little disorganized during the holidays and didn't get around to sending Christmas cards, this would be a great time to send Valentines in their place. Why not? The Love we feel at Christmas time is the same Love we're feeling right now.

I took my granddaughter McKenzie ( age 3) shopping for Valentines and while we were looking at all the pretty cards she said, "Eyelah (that's what she has always called me) I have to go potty."

"Okay, let's go find a bathroom." I was grateful for her newly acquired awareness.

When we got in the stall, she took one look at the toilet and was aghast that it didn't look anything like the one at her house and she suddenly didn't have to go anymore. I decided to go myself thinking that when she heard me go, the sound would trick her body into forgetting this wasn't the perfect place to potty. Meanwhile another woman went into the stall next to us. We could see her feet.

"Who's dat?"

"I don't know, just a lady who has to go potty."

"I yike hers shoes."

"Yeah, they're pretty."

When I was finished going potty, McKenzie pulled too much toilet paper off the roll and said, "Let me wipe you now, Eyelah."

"No, that's all right, I can wipe myself."

"No, I can wipe you."

"Well, see Eyelah needs to wipe herself, okay?"

"Why?"

"Because I just do."

"Why?"

The woman with the pretty shoes was hysterical, which I was grateful for as she could have been someone who didn't have children and wouldn't have understood the exchange of words. We met at the sinks, laughing and she said, "There is such elegance in innocence." We all washed our hands and got back to our Valentine shopping.

LOVE

I love that we have a month (short as it is) that we devote to LOVE!

Its almost a given that we love our kids, our mates, our family, and our friends but I think it's appropriate to spread some of that love in our own direction. I don't mean we should puff up with egotistical self-love, but recognize and love that piece of life we call "me." When somebody says, "Who is it?" and you answer, "It's me." Who is me?" The real "me" is vast, and invisible. A doctor can give you a complete physical exam and come up with volumes about your body, but the invisible "you" is so much more.

On February 3, we executed a woman in Texas and on the surface of the whole event we heard opinions from those who were against the execution and those who were for it. I had seen Karla on 60-Minutes several months ago and I felt in my heart that she was truly transformed. I had hoped she could live, but in her death she left us so much more. She was so filled with God's love and mercy that she maintained, until the end, an elegance. She showed us that a heinous murderer can be transformed by divine love. She carried herself with such grace that could only come from God and for me she will always be a symbol that we can change and we are forgiven, no matter what we have done.

As we join together this month plastering hearts around the house let's put up a couple hearts to remind us that we are so loved by God no matter what we've done in the past, no matter what confusion we've created, rooms we've trashed, checkbooks we've messed up, dirty dishes we've left, laundry we've piled. It's a new day and WE CAN CHANGE!