valentine’s day is everyday

Happy Valentine’s Day to You!

Chelsea Garden, Solana Beach, CA

It was Valentine’s Day 1984. My Restaurant, Chelsea Garden, had just been reviewed by the local rag, The Reader, with rave reviews from Eleanor Widmer who regularly closed a restaurant a week with her acerbic comments. The Review came just in the nick of time. Having been open since December, we were only doing single digit dinners each night. Suddenly, we were famous on Valentine’s Day.

I was out running around trying to prepare for an onslaught of customers. When I returned, my Manager told me that someone had been by to meet me. I couldn’t imagine who or why. She said he wanted to meet the person who had finally won a great review from the Wicked Witch. He was a local restauranteur and club owner who invited us to come be his guests that evening after we closed. I passed it off turning my focus back to the business at hand. We were going to be very busy that evening; and, thank God, we were saved.

That evening after we closed, Manager and I went over to the Restauranteur’s Club as invited. It was very late, perhaps 12:30 am. There was a line at the door to get it. Standing there with a grin from ear to ear was a man whom I’d never seen before. As I approached, he asked me, “Can I help you?” I nodded, “I’m looking for Woody.” He grinned back saying, “You just found him.” In that nanosecond I felt as though I had already met him. I knew him, but of course, I didn’t. We stood staring at each other in the space of infinity both of us trying to fathom this irrefutable Connection. I looked at his face, seeing it for the first time; feeling his Spirit, I knew I’d known him for Eternity.

It was a love affair that has lasted for lifetimes. Woody passed away in 1997; but since then I’ve learned the absolute Eternality of Love. Love never dies and neither do we. At the time of Woody’s physical death, I was dismayed. Why did something so wonderful need to end? Yet over the years I have come to know that in Truth, Love never dies. It is a living breathing Entity that is Eternal leaving you free to Love over and over and over because you are so full. It is the unconditional Wind Beneath My Wings.

I wish this experience for everyone. Valentine’s Day is everyday.

Thanks for reading

Kath