What you really love

These balloons drifted up onto our beach a few days ago, and though I suspect they were from a child's birthday party, they seem an appropriate greeting for a Valentine's Day post.

I get that Valentine's Day is supposed to be an exciting opportunity to express love for our dear ones, but so often this image seems closer to the truth -- our inflated dreams of love so often wither with time and the pressure of reality.

Perhaps that's because the day becomes -- like Christmas -- all tangled up with expectations for what we hope to get rather than what we long to give?  I hesitate to go down that road, though, because it seems more like an accusation designed to make us feel guilty for longing.

Perhaps instead we should look behind the longing: what is it we really wish for?  What is that pull to completion that propels our hunger for love?  While looking for thoughts on love yesterday, I found this lovely Rumi quote that seems to cut to the heart of this tension:

Let yourself be silently drawn
by the stronger pull
of what you really love.

So that's something to dream about today as you find yourself surrounded by thoughts of pink, and sweets, and hearts and flowers -- what is it you really love?