{"id":3734,"date":"2011-02-13T22:38:34","date_gmt":"2011-02-14T02:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heidiannie.com\/?p=3734"},"modified":"2011-02-13T22:38:34","modified_gmt":"2011-02-14T02:38:34","slug":"valentines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/?p=3734","title":{"rendered":"Valentines"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"spring<\/a><\/p>\n

When Robin and I were little girls, Valentine\u2019s Day was one of our<\/p>\n

favorite holidays.  We would bring home all the valentines we <\/p>\n

had received from our classmates and tape them up on the<\/p>\n

wall of the staircase coming down from her bedroom- then we would <\/p>\n

dress up in our finery and take turns at being the \u201cQueen of Valentine\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was a little sappy- even for us- but this was before it was cool<\/p>\n

for every little girl to play at princesses and we had precious<\/p>\n

little play time.  <\/p>\n

We grew up in a working business family.  When we got home from school<\/p>\n

in the winter we changed our clothes, grabbed a quick snack and went<\/p>\n

out into the greenhouse to fill packs with dirt so that our mother could<\/p>\n

transplant seedlings \u2013 tomatoes, peppers, petunias, etc. to sell in the <\/p>\n

Spring.  When it was dark, we would come in for dinner, watch a little<\/p>\n

television and get ready for bed.<\/p>\n

And Valentine\u2019s day wasn\u2019t really busy in the greenhouse- not like Easter <\/p>\n

or Memorial Day- so we stole some time from work to play.<\/p>\n

Over the years, it remained our holiday.  We made each other special <\/p>\n

valentines and a special lunch that we shared.  We also shared the <\/p>\n

boxes of chocolate and flowers that our men gave us.<\/p>\n

To us, it was special- not ROMANTIC!  WE were the Queens of Valentine\u2019s<\/p>\n

Day.  It would have hurt more if either of us had forgotten the other, than<\/p>\n

if we didn\u2019t have a guy or a date.<\/p>\n

\"002\"<\/a>\"004\"<\/a>\"003\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Today, I was sitting in the parking lot of the grocery store, waiting for my <\/p>\n

husband to pick up an item we had forgotten, when I saw a woman with a pot<\/p>\n

of primroses in her cart.  From the back, she reminded me of Robin- same height <\/p>\n

and weight, same hairstyle and color- and as I watched her examining and <\/p>\n

arranging the flowers and then write out a card and place it  in the plastic card <\/p>\n

fork- I somehow knew that she was going to give that plant as a gift to her sister.<\/p>\n

I watched and waited as she carefully put the plant into a decorative bag she<\/p>\n

pulled out of her back seat and then placed the bag onto the front seat of her<\/p>\n

car.  Then she pushed the cart back to the cart stall and made a phone call.<\/p>\n

A couple of minutes later, a woman pulled up behind the car, and I saw her <\/p>\n

present the gift to her friend- with a hug.<\/p>\n

Maybe.  Maybe that is what happened.  It may have been a gift for a sick friend.<\/p>\n

It may have been meant for their grouchy demanding mother.  Perhaps it was <\/p>\n

going to end up on the table of her daughter\u2019s teacher.  I guess I could have<\/p>\n

made up any story to go with the little drama I had seen.  <\/p>\n

But tomorrow is Valentine\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

And something about this lady reminded me of Robin. <\/p>\n

So- as I sat there- I thought of all the hoopla that goes on with Valentine\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

And of the angst of single women who aren\u2019t in a relationship-<\/p>\n

also of the married women who are neglected and don\u2019t feel like a Valentine, anymore.<\/p>\n

Mostly, however, I thought about how Valentines are about love, and consideration.<\/p>\n

And I thought about what a glorious gift we gave each other all those years ago-<\/p>\n

because we chose each other to be our valentines.<\/p>\n

 \"001\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"005\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Happy Valentine\u2019s Day to you all!<\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Robin and I were little girls, Valentine\u2019s Day was one of our favorite holidays.  We would bring home all the valentines we had received from our classmates and tape them up on the wall of the staircase coming down … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stepsonthejourney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}