February 2010

Valentine’s Day is a day for lovers. It’s a day to be a hopeless romantic and lose yourself in the love you feel for your spouse, significant other or chocolate. It’s especially exciting for new lovers. It’s a day to feel giddy inside, the way a child feels before Christmas, anxious in the anticipation of something wonderfully new and exciting. For so many people, Valentine’s can be a day of looking ahead to a candle-light dinner, a first kiss, a weekend getaway, and just maybe, happily ever after.

Yet what would those moments be if we could not capture them in our minds and hold on to them forever? Those memories that become keystones to the relationships we foster with the one person for which we’ve fallen. The mental images that take our hearts from wandering adrift aimlessly in the clouds of hope to being rooted in the fertile fields of real love with that special someone who is worthy of our devotion. They are snapshots of a smile here and a glance there. They are portraits of specific events, embedded with the sounds and smells that made that moment ever so perfect, all of which combine to bring a heartwarming smile to our face. And, we collect them all not in shoe boxes or photo albums, but rather with the depth and intimacy of our own souls. These memories become a part of us as individuals and make up the fabric we weave in unison with the one person who holds our heart.

We celebrate anniversaries and milestones with stories of, “Remember the time….?” We look back at the moments that solidified the relationships we cherish; all the candle lit dinners, that spectacular first kiss, the splendid weekend getaways, and all the little smiles and glances that paved the road that led to happily ever after. Each moment builds on the next, each memory expanding our capacity for love, honor and commitment.

The irony, however, remains in the unfortunate fact that our memories become treasure we can share with only ourselves. Though we may try with words, gestures and the occasional tear to describe the nuggets of experiences we hold so close to our hearts, we can never quite recreate for others what only our mind’s eye sees so clearly.

It is for this very reason we take the time and make the effort to capture our special moments with photos. The engagement party, the rehearsal dinner, the wedding, the first dance, every first milestone a young couple shares as husband and wife; we capture them all in order to show the world and share our happiness with others. We eagerly hang them on our walls, post them online, and add them to a memory book. They take residence in frames on our mantels and laptops on our desks. They exist in vibrant colors and softened hues that both document a moment in time as well as tell a story forever.

As you celebrate this Valentine’s Day, I wish for you a day full of memories and moments that you will always cherish. May it be a day that produces new images for you, be they mental or physical, that will make your heart beat stronger and remind you of the wonderful power of love.

Gil Gonzalez is the first in a series of guest contributors that we will be featuring over the next couple of months. He is a freelance writer, blogger and author of the ‘Lives‘ book series and can be found at danacreative.net.

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