There is a big drawback to homeschooling on Valentine’s Day. In a regular school, you get a lot of cards and maybe even some candy. At home, you might give your siblings or parents a card, but when all the other kids on the block get thirty and all you have is three, it can be depressing.
That’s when the idea of Random Acts of Valentine’s came up. We printed up a bunch of little cards, saying “you have just been hugged, Happy Valentine’s Day, pass it on.” Then, we went out to various malls and just handed them out to whoever we ran into.
Everyone was very positive about the experience. They would stop and talk to us a bit. For many of them, it might have been the only acknowledgement they got on the day. Not everyone is married or in a relationship, and that can be a very lonely thing on days of this nature.
This is something to keep in mind. Whenever any holiday comes up that tends to mean being involved with people, remember those who don’t have someone. It may be a neighbor down the street who is now an empty nester. It could be the coworker who lost a spouse.
It doesn’t have to be a “Random Act of Valentine’s,” it could be any holiday and it could be expressed in many different ways. An invitation for a cup of coffee might mean a lot to someone who is lonely.
If you are the lonely one, I encourage you to do the same thing. There are a lot of ways to meet nice people. Call the church and see if there are any shut ins that might like a visitor. Call the school and see if they need a volunteer to read to the children or some other occupation. Take the initiative.
We have become a society of introversion. We close our doors and live our lives on the television or the computer screen. We may only recognize our neighbor if he or she is getting into or out of his car. We’re afraid to reach out. We might get hurt. If we are to survive as a people, we need to get out of that habit, so, let’s start with Random Acts of Valentines.