Yes, it’s February. Just show me the Love!
I can’t help thinking that February, truly being one of the coldest months of the year in many places, is still all about Love. Still, the heart remains warm.
I guess St. Valentine must have been in a warm place celebrating Love, and focusing on matters of the heart.
Valentine’s Day can bring up wonderful feelings, especially if you have Love in your life. Love need not be romantic, Love can be toward your family and friends. And let us not forget the “fur” beings.
Who can define what “Love” is for one person, which may be so different for another?
I just finished watching After Life, a series on Netflix. Interestingly enough, I’m not usually drawn to the many titles of After Life but this one drew me in. The episode was written and directed by Ricky Gervais.
Ricky Gervais wrote with his brash British humor. I won’t give it away, but in the show, he has lost the Love of his Life. His journey on how he deals with his loss is intriguing.
For me, I couldn’t help feeling that part of the After Life series is what I experience sometimes, more or less, with sessions involving the loss of loved ones.
Oddly, recently, I had two of the most intense sessions with two folks: a woman who lost her partner, and a man who lost his wife.
As I watched the series of After Life, the woman who had lost her husband kept coming into my mind. How deeply painful was her loss.
Often, the deep painful devastation occurs one feels after the person with whom you’ve shared your life, is gone. The woman I mentioned was his bride of 50 years.
Ricky Gervais truly captured much of the theme in After Life. I found this series of small vignettes to be very deeply packed with Ricky’s humor and wit. You’ve got to like his dialogue, and if you know his work, expect reality. He doesn’t hold back one word. Personally, I felt Ricky said it like so many people who’ve experienced a deep loss, showing how hard it is to express how one feels. No stoic stiff upper lip here!
I have heard for most of my adult life, over and over from loved ones in Spirit, that Love continues after death. The deep intense feeling when someone passes is a major loss and the passing impacts so much of our lives. We are often told to “Get over it, and move on. it’s been a year.” But it’s hard in our culture to just shake it off.
I remember a story about a dear friend who was grieving and sat in a hospice with a family of Native Americans. It was the grandmother who was at the end of her life. All 12 or 13 members of the family would come into the room, and sing, dance, touch her and express all their feelings. The day she died they all wailed, gathered around her, wrapped her in a blanket and carried her out of the hospice, clearly letting everyone know their loss. (I learned that no one can stop you from carrying the deceased out of a hospital.) I never forgot that story. Not exactly the same as in After Life with Ricky, but you get the picture!
I wish all of you the best month of Love with everyone you love. Enjoy every minute and moment you have!
Here is part of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Parliament of Fowls, which is associated with Romantic Love of Valentine’s Day, written around 1381-1382, in the language of the time. An interpretation follows.
“For this was on seynt Valentynes day
Whan every foul cometh there to chese his make
Of every kynde that men thynke may
And that so huge a noyse gan they make
That erthe, and eyr, and tre, and every lake
So ful was, that unethe was there space
For me to stonde, so ful was al the place.”
In modern English:
“For this was on Saint Valentine’s Day
When every bird comes there to choose his match
Of every kind that men may think of
And that so huge a noise they began to make
That earth and air and tree and every lake
Was so full, that not easily was there space
For me to stand—so full was all the place.”
For the full version and history, see http://www.librarius.com/parliamentfs.htm
This month I’ll be in the Fort Lauderdale area for in-person private and small group sessions. Hope to see many of you I’ve missed the last couple of years.
Always Love,
Warmly,
Suzane
