Many gives to share from my Valentine’s Day:

I started with a gift to myself and a realization that I need to do a better job of self-care. So I treated myself to a cranial sacral massage with a gifted healer named Pat. She is the most intuitive woman I have ever met. Not having seen Pat in close to a year, I was amazed at her ability to zero in on what I needed. Pat’s gentle, yet powerful, energy work brought up and out so many emotions that my body needed to be cleansed of. So that was Give 1.

Give 2 is that I decided that I am going to include myself in my daily practice of giving. Whether it’s the gift of a few minutes of meditation or quiet time, a workout or yoga, or a walk, I need to make myself a priority.

Give 3 was a gift to my kids: I filled two mugs with heart-shaped notes. Each started with the line, “What I love about you is…” For each of my boys, I wrote things I appreciate about them: their sense of kindness and generosity, their love of music, their enthusiasm (for Jack, it was for football, for Ben is was for drama), their gentle way with small children and animals… that sort of thing. I folded each piece of paper in quarters and stuffed the mugs. When I gave them their mugs, it was such a joy to watch their faces as they unfolded each note. I am going to make this sort of thing a tradition every year.

Give 4 was to my friend who had just lost her brother. She came back from Florida yesterday morning clearly exhausted and about to jump in on the demands of family. So I bought her a sunny-yellow begonia plant and card, just letting her know that my family and I were thinking of her and here for her.

So… a fulfilling day… filled with giving and the receiving that comes back to me in so many ways! I hope you all had a “heartwarming” day, too!