no hearts and flowers

So.

Valentines' Day.

Normally, this is a day I love, and I like to spoil my man and be spoiled in turn.

But today, it's just another day for me, because my husband is away (again). It doesn't matter, really, because we celebrate our marriage every day and a special day is like sprinkles on the icing on the cake.

But today is not 'just another day' for some pretty amazing women whose blogs I've been reading this year. Women who've lost their soulmates and are having to learn to live life without their other half.

How do they do that? how do they get out of bed every day and face life, knowing how cruel it can be? How do they learn to live again?

I often think of these two lines from Sleepless In Seattle.
"Well, I'm gonna get out of bed every morning... breathe in and out all day long. Then, after a while I won't have to remind myself to get out of bed every morning and breathe in and out... and, then after a while, I won't have to think about how I had it great and perfect for a while."
"Well, it was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together... and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home... only to no home I'd ever known... I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like... magic."

There's nothing you can say to someone who's lost love like that. Nothing in all this world to ease the pain or help them forget.
And on a day like today, when others are celebrating their two-ness, I offer you women my love, my thoughts, my prayers.
It's not enough.
It's all I have.