When nostalgia hits you, all you’ve got to do is press rewind and off you go to reminisce mode. Thus, this post. 😉

Before starting this article, I have one thing to ask:

Will the celebration of Valentine’s Day ever be possible without it being commercialized?

I can neither say I am guilty of that nor do I disapprove of it. For the sole reason that I intend to mash-up both ways in celebrating Valentine’s Day: the traditional and the contemporary. The genuine and the commercialized, so to speak. 😀

Let me enumerate why.

The common a.k.a. commercialized Valentine’s Day celebration include but is not limited to flowers, chocolates, gifts, and lavish dates. It involves meticulous and extensive planning weeks prior to the “big day.” Not to mention that it also requires resources: money, time and effort. What is good about them? It is considered a good investment in the relationship synonymous to this – the happiness of your significant other matters more than anything else. The only reason why it should be celebrated in such a manner – never because it is the fad and never because everyone does it. Deviate from the norm by regarding it differently. Remaking the ordinary to make it extraordinary as I put it. 😉

Which leads me now to the  traditional way of celebrating it, way back when our ancestors have no other means to celebrate it with their loved ones except through a simple but meaningful time spent together devoid of any material gift and lavish dates. I would like to stress out this word in this portion of the article – meaningful. Yes, that is far more important than anything else in every date. 🙂

So to backtrack….I found myself wondering. Was I successful in combining the two in celebrating Valentine’s Day with my special guys? YES. And I have God to thank for the opportunity as well as the provisions. He made it all happen. I dated two guys – Him and him.

God gave us the opportunity to spend Valentine’s Day in a very meaningful way, commercialized too but only to a minimum. 😉

It has been my tradition to watch any of the UP Feb fair concerts which usually falls on the week of Valentine’s Day. I was more than glad when our Managing Editor, Ms. Anj, gave the writing assignment to me to cover the event for When In Manila, an online publishing company where I am currently a writer. But the fun never stopped there, because the host of the Valentine’s Day concert was a Christian organization in UP, the UP Students of Destiny and Brian was free to attend the event with me. I don’t call it luck, I call it God’s plans. 😀

Read more about the concert and our superb time there here:

http://www.wheninmanila.com/kontrakultura-3-born-for-love-set-the-hearts-ablaze/

Brian and I with our couple hoodies at the Kontrakultura 3 concert grounds. 🙂

Surprises are never my thing, but I am getting used to it and loving it especially when they come from God and from the person you love. Yihee! 😀

Kidding aside now, before the concert, Brian and I met up and he gave me a rose, a very pretty one. But not only that. Along with it he handed me a work of art – a love message in the form of a poem. Though I must say he is trying to imitate my being a poetess. hahaha Kidding. 😉 (You’ve done such an amazing job by the way, baby! I love you to pieces. 🙂 )

Roses are red and poems are the sweetest.

The day after, February 15, Brian asked me if I can have a post V-Day dinner and movie date with him, to which I said yes of course but I also thought that something is lacking. I was looking for that real essence of what Valentine’s Day is really all about – selfless, meaningful love, a love that is not only revolving between Brian and I. I prayed to God and I asked for guidance and for answers. Then the answer came – spend it with the people who are close to you and who need your utmost love too. The first person who crossed my mind was Ate Daisy. She is the mom of the family whom I serve as a Family Support Volunteer for the Victory QC Community Outreach Ministry.

My admiration for Ate Daisy is beyond words. A mom of 4, raising her children on her own as her husband passed away two years ago, she is indeed the true modern “superwoman.” She carries that heavy responsibility of being both a father and a mother to her kids (2 of them are in college already), working 6 or 7 days in a week doing laundry to earn money and provide for her family. It was my first time to volunteer and I have a lot of apprehensions. My first question to God was this: how can I help them knowing that I don’t have the means sufficient enough to help them (financially, new in the faith, not enough experience, etc.)?

And yet, came His answer: your presence is enough. 🙂 

So there it was. When a message is being delivered from up above, I do nothing but follow. And I was surprised even more: I was given provisions to buy Valentine’s Day gifts for Ate Daisy and her family, the free time, and a willing companion – Brian. I was nothing more but the happiest. It was my first visit and yet it was the most memorable. We were able to visit Ate Daisy, who greeted us with all smiles, talked with her and asked her how she’s been doing. We left her feeling happy and grateful making us happy and grateful too. After the visit, we ended our Saturday with a dinner and movie date which Brian promised. (Thank you, thank you, baby.)

But I know that this is only the beginning of more meaningful moments, of sharing to the people we care about the beautiful promises of God. We have a faithful God and I will continue to be grateful to Him for that. 🙂

I was planning my next visit to Ate Daisy for this month but I couldn’t decide the exact date yet. I thought I’ll just pray to God and wait when will be His perfect time for it. I prayed that He would equip me. Two days ago, I received the answer, The Crossroads training for Family Support Volunteers will be held starting this week to equip us, volunteers, to better help the families assigned to us. The best part is that God arranged and cleared my schedule though I have several commitments so I could attend them all.  God makes things perfect in His time, indeed.

Oh, Father God, thank you so much! May praise and glory be given to You always. I cannot speak of anything else except that. You are my greatest blessing. 🙂

I am grateful to Him too for giving me my partner in my mission to help spread God’s greatness and His message. Just to share a little bit of the love message that Brian gave me (I can’t share everything as it is far too special. 😉 ) which became my prayer too by the way, here it is:

“Embrace us, oh Father, as we walk with You in our journey together.” – J. B. G. R.

And because it was a very memorable Valentine’s Day for me, not only because it is my first Valentine’s Day with Brian but because I intend to make the ordinary as extraordinary, I have thought about preserving one good memorabilia of that day: the ROSE. 😉

I have received roses before but not once did it cross my mind to preserve them. Not until now. So I looked up over the internet how to preserve them which includes hanging the rose upside down, and letting it dry for a couple of weeks. When completely dried, spray with a little bit of hairspray to keep the petals from falling off. I am planning to put it inside a glass container to keep the dust away from the petals as it is hard brushing the petals off without damaging any single one of them.

And here is a picture of my special rose before and after. 🙂

BEFORE and AFTER

The single rose, if you have watched The Phantom of the Opera, is a symbol and a reminder of the Phantom’s love for Christine (the leading lady in the movie).

This rose, for me (being Christine too), is my memorabilia of Brian’s love for me and a promise of my God’s amazing love too. Awww, I know. Please don’t kill me for being extremely mushy. hahaha 😀

Seriously, here is what I have to say, start loving my God too and you will never, ever regret you did that. 😉