Happy Valentine's Day!

I confess I am all over Valentine's Day...as I am with every wonderful excuse to celebrate. As I told my friend the other day. "I am a Skylark!" You see that girl loading up her dollar store cart with plastic pink champagne flutes and shiny red 'lips' confetti. The one desperately torn between the heart shaped paper plates or the busy red ones because one matches the flimsy, frilly pink table cloth better? That is me.

I do the same thing in August for Halloween and Christmas...well, December..let's just say Martha Stewart who? I am even now thinking about the limerick contest I will thrust upon my friends on St. Patrick's Day and what day this week I will load up on pastel bunnies.

I love it! Though I am careful who I bring into the fold. There are those who simply cannot oblige such gluttony. And certainly one must only and ever go panting and messy into the banquets of chocolate, wine and cinnamon hearts!

And I am happy to say I have passed this tradition on to my daughter who, along with five of her closest friends brought in Eros Hour with heart shaped pizza, heart shaped cookies and as shown above, heart shaped grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast (I love my new panini grill!). The table was like Cupid himself had vomited, leaving a swirl of red and pink sparkling innards, made even more sparkling by the stinking red candles in the centre.

I, on the other hand delighted in a chocolate so rich it seemed poisoned with passion. It's called Xocolatl, named after the ancient chocolate of the Aztecs. This organic bliss came laced with actual chilies and cacao nibs....mmmmm...

Yesterday, I brought some Valentine's treats to Westminster Junior High school for a reading. It was great fun! Great kids! Really fantastic! One in particular, a boy had raised his hand for a question: "Have you had to make sacrifices in your life as you have pursued your career in writing?"

Wow. I felt like I was on Oprah. What a wonderful question. And heartfelt. This boy was quite magical. He asked because he really, really wanted to know.  As if he'd spent years pondering his own life as an artist and yet couldn't abide by the collective current of thinking that puts 'starving' and 'artist' in the same sentence.

And so I shall share here what I shared with him.

I do not subscribe to the notion that 'following your passion' is a flaky affair that will inevitably lead to poverty and heartache. In fact I am of the opposite opinion. Indeed, when one does find happiness in what they are doing and trusts in this alone, then doors fly open taking the hinges with them. If you are being called to the special expression of yourself, that little corner of joy, be it art or dance or hockey you simply must go. You must. It is the invitation of the soul and the only gateway to joy. There is no sacrifice. You needn't give up something for it. You needn't suffer for your art. Baloney! You can have it all, friends, family, marriage, career, children. Balance all of them! For why should you not embrace all the things you were put on this lovely, amazing planet to enjoy!

He seemed pleased with that answer. Elated even. What a lovely smile he gave me. I was awed and overcome with gratitude, honored at the chance to have invited it out of him.

Happy Valentine's Day!