“A love to peel away mortgage payments, root canals and this gray February world.”

“A love to peel away mortgage payments, root canals and this gray February world.”

Riding home from school, my 9 year-old staring out the window said, “Mama. The heart wants what the heart wants. If the heart wants a limo – you will go for a ride in a limo.”

The heart wants what the heart wants. The heart wants ice cream, chocolate syrup, whipped cream and a cherry. You will order a chocolate sundae.

The heart wants a sunny day. You wait and wait until you can’t take it anymore then helplessly charge a trip to Aruba on an already stretched credit card. This makes your significant other very angry. Which results in single ticket to Aruba – one way.

Weighing approximately 10 ounces, the heart wants a lot more than a cup and a quarter full of sundaes and sunshine.

In almost every noted ancient culture, the heart was the seat of emotion and intellect. Egyptians thought so little of the brain that when preparing the departed for afterlife, they weighed and preserved the heart while pulling the brain out the nostrils to discard.

We now know the brain’s value in cognition and emotion, but even correctly attributed, the brain can want a lot and never be content. The only thing that truly satisfies is not limo rides, not sundaes, not sunny days spent on tropic islands, but

Love.

My daughter confused “I want” with “I love.”

I want someone to shower me with kisses and open lines of credit. I love someone enough to stick with a budget and shower them with kisses, making diligent attempts at really good kisses at least a third of the time.

Wanting equals longing desire. Loving equals desiring long term even on days your head pounds as if your brain has been wedged halfway into your left nostril by a misguided Egyptian priest zombie escaped from Ramesses II court.

            Wanting is feverish, intolerant. Love is patient, except in matters of ice cream.

            Wanting demands. Love never insists on its own way, except in matters of ice cream.

            Wanting is childlike. Love matures, like fine ice cream.

            Wanting changes with our whims. Love endures.

That is my wish for you, an enduring love that burns as a want. A love that peels away mortgage payments, root canals, mud-stained carpet and this gray February world. One burrowing down past desires of diamonds, champagne and empty laundry baskets to reveal love’s burning core. Once fanned with kindness, trust, hope and belief — enduring love can blaze bright — no matter how dim the embers might seem.

This Valentine’s Day, I hope you experience being fully known and fully loved. Well, either that or a limo ride with a bowlful of your favorite ice cream.

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