a valentine blessing (when it’s complicated)

Maybe this year, love is especially complicated.
And the hearts and flowers are but a strange reminder 
of what isn’t working, what isn’t here.

Or maybe you are alone, and have been for so long
that romantic gestures are in a language
only others speak.

If that is so, then this blessing is for you:

Dear heart, I don’t know you, but you are loved.
I know this because of the way you are made:
     In love, and for love. 

Blessed are you, the beloved,
granting yourself permission
to look long into the wonder that is uniquely you,
and see afresh what you love, and who you love, 

and how it is that you bring into the world
the singular and necessary and irreplaceable gift
that is you.

Celebrate it today. Unreservedly,
right in the place you find yourself now.
And in the giving, 
to receive.