Say what you will about Valentine’s day and what a cheesy holiday it can be. Go right ahead and complain, if you feel the need, about a day when we are forced to shower affection on each other and feel alienated and alone if we don’t happen to be part of a blissful romance on that particular day of the year.
But I won’t join you. ‘Cause a little reaching out to others, really goes a long way. Something wonderful just happened at our house that makes me realize yet again that it’s a marvelous thing to have a day when we do acts of kindness and go a little further in reaching out to other people.
You see, every year at my girls’ school they have a Valentine’s Day fundraiser and all the kiddos can buy carnations for their friends and teachers. As parents, My Dear Husband and I like to purchase one for each of our girls. We want them to know that Valentine’s Day isn’t just for the boy you have a crush on. We want them to understand that on this day families and friends can reach out to each other and share their love, too.
Which brings me to the wonderful thing that just happened at our house.
On Valentine’s Day Miss 10 and Miss 9 brought home flowers from Daddy, but little Miss 7 arrived empty handed. (Not wonderful, I know. Wait for it.) Our hearts ached to see that she thought somehow Daddy had taken time out of his work day to go over to the school and buy flowers for her older sisters, but not her. We tried to explain to her that Daddy had gotten a flower for her, but it just wasn’t delivered. She is only a first grader and she tried to understand, but even though she was nodding, her eyes were straying over to the flowers I was placing in a vase.
We felt so bad we sent out a quick email to the school expressing our disappoint and urging them to be a little more careful organizing the sale for future years.
Imagine my surprise when not even two hours later I saw an unfamiliar car stop in front of our house.
And out of that car stepped our school principal, carrying not one, but three flowers for our little first grader. She tracked down the undelivered flower and brought extras!
The school principal took time out of her exhausting day to come TO OUR HOUSE and deliver a flower to our little first grade daughter.
I almost cried. And I made her hug me.
She just laughed and said, “A girl’s got to have her Valentine’s Day.”
(as if coming all the way TO OUR HOUSE, bearing flowers, was no big deal.)
Wonderful, right?
We drive our girls all the way across town to go to this particular school and sometimes when I feel like I’ve spent half my life carpooling my van up and down the same old streets, I really doubt my decision to send them there, and my sanity. But it’s good to know that when I’m spending my gas money and my time to haul their fannies over there, it’s absolutely worth it. Our school principal is a Saint. Today she did something that was beyond her duty and was amazingly kind.
Haters gotta’ hate (as the saying goes) but I am a Valentine’s Day lover. And this was a little Valentine’s Day kindness that really made our day.
This is so sweet. What an awesome principal 🙂