Make your life sweeter
Growing older is inevitable. Chronologically, I mean, not in spirit. We have to grow older, but we don’t have to grow bitter. Being bitter and resentful is a sure formula for unhappiness and for adding on more wrinkles, faster. Bitterness is like a poisonous plant, like a tumour, that will take hold of your mind and fill it with negative feelings till there is no joy left in your life at all. Not just that, it will also give rise to physical problems. Dr. S. I. McMillan, in his bestseller “None of These Diseases,” says, “Anger, unhandled, will show itself in at least 50 diseases.”
So instead of becoming bitter, why not make your life sweeter? How? There are many ways, but one of the best ways to achieve this is by spreading some love to those around you. Reach out in love to your loved ones, to people you know as well as to those you don’t. And what better day to begin adding sweetness to your life than today, on Valentine’s Day? A day when people show their family and friends how much they mean to them, and how much they care for them.
Celebrate love
Love is what we were created for and is an emotion that deserves to be celebrated at any age. You can never outgrow the need to love and feel loved. Love can make the senior years happier, and less lonesome, and even make you want to dance for joy sometimes. No matter if life is no longer akin to participating in a sprightly jig now but more like swaying to a slow waltz, love will still make you feel that life is worth living.
It’s such a wonderful feeling to know that someone appreciates us and thinks we are special. It makes us feel valued, fills us with hope, and gives us the courage to carry on even in the face of the most painful disappointments. Yes love can do all this and more.
The bottom line: Forget bitterness. Life is short, let’s make it sweet!
Valentine’s Day fun facts
History of Valentine’s Day:
Did you know that the origins of Valentine’s Day can be traced back to the ancient Roman celebration of Lupercalia, a feast that was celebrated on 15 February and involved the pairing of couples? But the celebration of love didn’t get its present name till a priest named Valentine, who was a romantic at heart, defied the decree of Emperor Claudius II that soldiers should remain bachelors. (The Emperor believed that marriage would distract brave soldiers from performing their duties!) Anyway, Valentine began performing marriage ceremonies for these soldiers secretly, but was killed on February 14 for his defiance. Once he was declared a saint, the early church in Rome moved the Lupercalia celebrations to February 14 and then renamed it as St. Valentine’s Day.
The role of Cupid:
Cupid, the son of Venus, was believed to cause people to fall in love by aiming his magical arrows at their hearts. Well, according to Roman mythology, Cupid fell in love with Psyche, a mortal princess. Now Venus being like one of those malicious mothers-in-law seen in our saas-bahu Hindi TV soaps, was jealous of her daughter-in-law’s beauty and forbade her to even look at her son Cupid. Psyche, tired of having physical relations with her husband in the cover of darkness, couldn’t resist stealing a peek at him one morning, and was therefore given some severe punishments, one of which ultimately caused her death. But Cupid was not one of those meek Mama’s boys, and brought his wife Psyche back to life. Impressed by the love of Cupid and Psyche for one another, the gods granted Psyche immortality and since then Cupid became the symbol of love and romance.
Fun Trivia:
- Guess who are the most popular recipients of Valentine’s Day cards? Sweethearts, you think? Wrong! In order of popularity, they are presented to: teachers, children, mothers, wives, sweethearts, and pets.
- Men buy most of the millions of boxes of chocolates and flower bouquets given as gifts on Valentine’s Day.
- The expression “wearing your heart on your sleeve” originated from an old Valentine’s Day party tradition. Young women had to write their names on slips of paper which were then jumbled to raise the suspense quotient of what followed. Each man would have to draw a slip bearing the name of a woman and then wear it on his sleeve to declare her as his valentine for the party. Not a bad idea, most young men today would say, provided all the ladies at the party looked like Aishwaria Rai. And of course the smart young women of today would agree too, if all the men either looked like Shah Rukh Khan or… were as rich as him.
- Richard Cadbury created the first Valentine’s Day candy box in the late 1800s. But what’s a box of candy compared to a magnificent monument? Nothing can beat the most remarkable gift of love – the Taj Mahal in India.
To end on a romantic note, I’ll let you enjoy a personal favourite, Dean Martin’s “That’s Amore”. Such a joyful celebration of that feeling called LOVE! This is a clip from the comedy film “The Caddy” in which the song was first featured, with Dean Martin performing and Jerry Lewis joining in.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
