More Than Just Flowers and Chocolate

What's left when the flowers withered, the chocolate eaten, the dinner is over and the card forgotten? Today, restaurants are filled with lovers celebrating love, romance and relationship. Today, florists and chocolate shops made more money than several months combined. 

Today, I broke my tradition of giving flowers to my wife every Valentine's Day. Today would have been 17 buds of fresh red roses. Few days ago, as we were looking at the withered bundles of roses I've given in the past 3 Valentines, she asked me not to buy flowers this Valentine's Day, but to buy a mop instead. I know she loves flowers and values them as seen in her effort to save and keep them. I believe, this is a sacrifice in her part-letting go of her interest and desires so I can give her something more useful during these times of need. 

I understand that if we truly love, giving must not be absent. But giving is not limited to things. In the absence of material things, you can give your time, your service, and yourself to the one you love! At times, we must get past beyond flowers and pack of chocolate! Tangible things are not everything. They are good reminders, documenting our experience but when things are gone, what's left are the unseen and touched. Intangible things reach deeper, goes farther and lives longer.  "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart" writes Helen Keller. Keller was right. What's beauty if you can only see but not felt within your heart? Married or unmarried alike, our deepest need is the need to be loved, respected and accepted! This deepest need is beyond the tangible things.

Are you still committed and faithful to each other in the absence of tangible gifts? Can your love stand the test when all heaven is breaking loose and what is left you can hold on to is your commitment?