Take Heart

It's February, also known to many as Heart Month.  It's that month when we lead with our hearts and express what's in our hearts by giving those we love a special Valentine.  It's also the month when we are reminded to take care of our hearts for our health's sake.  It's disturbing to know that today's children are developing conditions that were once relegated to their elders, conditions that could easily lead to full-blown heart disease as they become adults.  As a little girl, I had no awareness, no concerns about heart disease.  Each February, I was only concerned about giving and receiving Valentines at my school.  My elementary school was an old, two-story building in the center of large grounds that provided wondrous opportunities for recess play.  The classes were all small.  My grade had as few as a dozen children in it some years.  We were all close, so Valentine's Day was very special.  I can vividly remember taking great effort to select just the right paper Valentines for my classmates and then carefully printing messages on them in pencil to each child.  We spent time in class making Valentines for our parents made of red and pink construction paper, paste, small pieces of tissue paper folded over pencil tops to make little flowers, and messages lovingly written -- and often misspelled -- in crayon.  Some years, we even had access to little candy hearts with messages on them to paste onto our Valentines, those heart candies that say "Be Mine" and other sweet things.  My mom used to make a Valentine tree -- a tree branch painted white with her nurse's shoe polish, then decorated with red construction paper hearts.  Those are the kinds of things I would wish for today's children -- a healthy heart and a heart filled with anticipation and joy for the love expressed on Valentine's Day.