I Used to think Valentine’s Day was about Loving Other People.

Summary

Divina Grey reflects on her evolving perspective on Valentine's Day, now seeing it as an opportunity to prioritize self-love and celebrate personal growth following her divorce.

Abstract

Divina Grey shares her journey of self-discovery and the transformation of her views on Valentine's Day. Initially, she believed the day was for expressing love towards others, but after her divorce, she has come to embrace it as a day for self-love and self-appreciation. She acknowledges the commercialization of the holiday and the societal pressure it brings. Despite this, Grey emphasizes the importance of loving oneself, even if it means putting others on hold to focus on personal development. She credits Ellie Jacobson for inspiration through the Freewriting Fridays initiative, which encourages self-expression and reflection.

Opinions

Grey believes that self-love is crucial and that Valentine's Day should also be about celebrating one's own progress and well-being.
She criticizes the commercialization of Valentine's Day and the associated consumer behavior, such as the theft of Valentine's Day teddy bears.
Grey admits that learning to love herself after her divorce has been a challenging but necessary process.
She finds it difficult to balance self-love with love for others but sees Valentine's Day as a reminder to focus on her own journey of self-love.
Grey appreciates the writing prompts from Ellie Jacobson's Freewriting Fridays as a source of inspiration and self-exploration.

These days, my perspective has shifted.

I’m over a week late responding to this writing prompt by Ellie Jacobson — and that’s okay because I love myself. Sometimes, I miss the mark, make mistakes, and reassure myself that I’m perfectly imperfect while binging on cheeseburgers.

I used to think Valentine’s Day was about celebrating my love for other people. However, after divorce, a lot of things about love change. For the better part of nineteen years, I commemorated my long-term relationship, my only relationship, with my now ex-husband.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll repeat it many more times: I will always love my ex-husband. But these days, I am learning to love myself (a lot) without him. Something I don’t recall doing in a very long time. I poured all my love and affection into him and my kids, and like the lead singer of Sublime, Bradley Nowell sings:

“…She spreads her lovin’ all over

And when she gets home

There’s none left for me.”

A little out of context, but still, I hope you get my point. We can only spread ourselves so thin until there’s nothing more to give.

I love Love. I don’t care for how commercialized Valentine’s Day has become and how normal it is to see someone running out of the store stealing six sizable Valentine’s Day Teddy Bears (true story) that may or may not have something to do with the sky-high price tags.

Loving myself enough to put others on hold momentarily is hard. It’s a life skill I am constantly working on balancing. But Valentine’s Day reminds me to celebrate the progress I’ve made.

Thank you, Ellie Jacobson, for the lovely inspiration! Here’s where the fantastic Freewriting Fridays all began!

Thank you for reading. You are Loved. ❤

I Used to think Valentine’s Day was about Loving Other People.

These days, my perspective has shifted.

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