February is the month of love – a time for Valentine’s Day and remembering love – emphasizing the importance of love in our lives.It’s not very unusual for us to fail to put 2 & 2 together, but love and grief are intimately related.  You can’t have one without the other.  You do not grieve unless you love and the risk of love involves the inevitability of grief.  We should remember this relationship.  It will help us to be able to grieve more purposefully when we realize its source is love.  It will help us to love more fully when we realize that love will result in grief and yet the eternity of love is found in our grief and remembering forever.  When we love, we never forget and we are able to imagine the idea of eternity and life everlasting.  The double-sided coin of grief and love are the two elements of understanding Eternity and Everlasting life – neither exists without love and its counterpart grief.

This year in February, we celebrate 50 years of the introduction of the Beatles to America.  Their legacy is their songs of love.  One particular song touches this two sided coin –

In My Life
(McCartney/Lennon)

Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before.
I know I’ll often stop and think about them,
In my life I love you more.

In my life I love you more

This isn’t a typical love story… in so far as the boy meets girl, boy falls in love with a promise of eternity together. But I feel the need to share it – I love my job. I love our volunteers. I love making a difference every day. This story includes all the good stuff…

Last week I was honored to visit a local nursing facility with one of our Patient Paws teams – Linda & her miniature poodle Raffiki. Now Rafi probably weighs 10 pounds including her downy white fur. When we placed her in the lap of one our patients I fell in love again. Not with any one person, but with the ability to communicate love and trust without a single sound. Witnessing our patient wrap her arms around that little ball of fur…   She sat straighter in her chair. Her eyes sparkled. That dog seemed to lick every little booger out of our patient’s nostrils. That short moment stirred so many emotions for each of us there.  This Valentine’s Day I hope we take the time to make a difference.

There’s no request too big or small
We give ourselves, we give our all
Love isn’t someplace that we fall
It’s something that we do.