Valentine's is not a storefront
dressed in red paper hearts.
It is a quiet question
slipped into our hands:
What do you choose to care for?
Love is not only roses,
wilting on a dashboard,
not only chocolates
melting into sweet apologies.
It is the long patience of staying,
the courage of saying the truth kindly,
the unseen work of forgiving
before the sun sets.
Today is not about buying affection.
It is about becoming
the of heart
that can hold another
without dropping itself.
There is more to February than flowers.
There is the practice of love
as a daily verb.