Love as I know it

As I lay in bed thinking about him, wondering and wishing, it suddenly hit me. That day is upon me once again. In my twenty something even years (odd seems like such a negative term to use and yes….I no go tell una my age. A girl gets keep somethings private na :P), I am yet to experience that giddy worldly feeling of the celebration. I lay in bed trying to remember how the day was spent in the past years, I even had to bb a friend to ask her about what we did last year and we couldn’t remember anything. All we knew was that ‘it was quite uneventful’. But one year’s remains very clear and vivid in my memory, 2008 Feb 14th.

I remembered that some weeks before that day, I had spoken with a friend and we had talked about giving back to the society as we had received in abundance from God. He made me realize how selfish and self absorbed I had been and I wanted to do something to appreciate God and also impact positively in someone else’s’ life. So I decided to volunteer at this compassionate home for disabled children.

My job was to assist another volunteer, who was also disabled, in teaching the children arts and craft. It was an amazing experience. Having these children look up to me like a big sister, seeking my approval for everything they did, wanting to impress me, was so humbling. I felt selfish once again because I was so happy being around them, even though they sometimes would drive me nuts with their questions and attention seeking..’aunty do you like my own?’, ‘aunty can I use this colour?’, ‘aunty, is my own fine?’, ‘aunty this, aunty that!’…… Aaargh…..it was awesome. The experience was phenomenal.

Anyway, it happened that valentine day fell on one of my volunteer days, so I planned to hang with the kids as my ‘date’ was far away. I got cakes and biscuits with juice, thinking we’d have a mini party but by the time I got there, the kids were having a ball. Some families had gifted them with food items, toys, cooked food, drinks, snacks and my tiny cake felt insignificant. I was disappointed and thought I should have stayed home but my disappointment was short lived cos as these children saw me, they left all they were doing and came to me. Both the limping and the crawling, all came to me screaming ‘aunty!, aunty!’. My joy was boundless. I hugged them close, fighting tears and thinking how happy these children were irrespective of their disability. How normal they looked even though some were crawling on their bellies. And I remembered to thank God for His mercies in my life, for His goodness and grace. For his gift of good health and physical ability. But most of all for his gift of Love. I realized that I loved those children like they were my siblings….in fact, they made up my private little family.

So us volunteers and visitors, sat and watched these kids play football and move around the compound and it was amazing how normal everything seemed. Even with one leg or none at all, they were as competitive and determined as your average child to score that goal. And the dancing when they did, oooh, that was something to watch.
As I lay in bed remembering all this, I realized that this was the reason for the celebration. Not an excuse for boys and girls to indulge in fornication or acquire new things, but a day to spread love to everyone around us. A day to give to those who are more in need than we are. A day to share our time with people whose lives would be impacted positively as ours would.

And then I think to myself, ‘oya, were you wan spend this valentine?’…… I will be in class that day or at work trying to code and decode stuff…..{hisssssss}.. But I have promised myself to spread more cheer, smile and show forth the Love of God to everyone I come in contact with.

Ehen, before I forget ehn….my door is open to receive cakes and chocolates, so you can all, you know.. spread the love reach my side on that day …una hear 😀

With Valentine Love…Dee