I sag a bit every time I hear someone say they have given up on love. People have been lonely, rejected, burned, disillusioned by love and I have to be honest, all of those things have happened to me. I suspect they happen to just about everyone at one point or another. I never gave up on love, not for one day, one minute, one second. Every morning when I got up, I had my own love mantra I would recite: I will find love, I want love in my life, I will never quit on it. And I never did, not even when I cruised past 60 years of age. The world conspires to make us give up on love. It is too difficult, too frightening,j I am too ugly, too old, too set, it is too expensive, too painful.
We do not see love on the news, it is not a big story anywhere, ever. But it is the big story in our hearts and souls. The best decision I ever made in my life was to never give up on love. It is hard to find love, and I know anything worthwhile doing is hard. Writing a book. Taking a good photo. Running a farm. Making money. Love is the foundation of life, I believe. I wouldn’t quite on that.

I believe that because I never gave up on love, it never gave up on me. My Valentine’s message to myself. And to you.