LOVE IS NEVER LOST

Valentine's Day is my sister, Maribeth’s favorite holiday. She reminded me the other day that one year I gave her a gold safety pin that I hung little charms representing all the members of

our family. Another year, she gave me a floating heart. I wore it when I went to New York for ballet. I believed it gave me courage. One late night, I was mugged and the mugger had a knife pointed at my belly. I’d never been mugged before and didn’t know the protocol for such an event, so when an innocent question came into my head, I let it come out of my mouth, “Does your mother know you do this?”

Love is never lost. 

My words shocked the mugger just enough to go away, but not before grabbing my necklace with the floating heart. That night, terribly troubled by the loss of such a sentimental yet otherwise worthless piece of gold, I dreamed about the incident again and again. I thought about how the floating heart always got caught on the clasp. It dawned on me that the mugger might not have gotten the heart. The next day, I went right back to the mugging scene and there on the sidewalk shining in the morning sun lay the floating heart. 

Love is never lost. 

Our family has had to learn a lot about love this year. We’ve wondered where love goes when we can’t see it. We’ve thought about how it can appear that love loses its way when life turns it upside down. However, appearances are deceiving. Love never loses its way. It knows exactly where it’s going and it is steadfast despite what our mind tricks us into thinking. 

Love is never lost. 

Love for people we care about who behave in ways we never imagined, love for ourselves when we don’t meet our own expectations, love for situations that we didn’t plan for, love in loss, pain, anger, and suffering –all seem to elude us. But it simply doesn’t have our attention. We are too attached to the behavior, the disappointment, the loss, the pain, and the suffering. We are caught in a whirlwind of thoughts, anxieties, and stresses that we can’t feel the power of its presence. 

Love is never lost. 

It knows it doesn’t have our attention, so it finds another way in – it finds a loving sister, a dear friend, a supportive mentor. They show up or call or arrange a get-together. You talk and laugh and the knots of pain, anxiety, and stress disappear for a moment. Love says, “feel me now? I am still here. I am always here for you.” This Valentines Day, please pass love’s message on and keep believing: 

Love is never lost.