Age of Aquarius

It's February...the dawning of the Age of Aquarius!!!

It's February, and well, for many, its the month of love, affection, warmth, or as as the song so eloquently says, the era when "peace will guide the planets and love will steer the sun"



My memory of February, the Aquarians, and love will always be symbolized in a pair of cups my parents kept alternately on their nightstands or on our fireplace mantle, depicting their Zodiac signs. My father's cup was the Aquarius and my mother's the Sagittarius. Although my parents probably never noticed, or knew, I'd read those cups religiously, memorizing the characteristics of both signs, the constellations that they were comprised of, and the dates they were marked by. As a child, I assumed both their compatibility and unity was assured by the presence of their Zodiac coffee mugs.

In the larger context, this is the month in which we celebrate the martyr of the Christian Saint Valentine, who wrote a love letter before his execution on the 14th of February,signing it 'Your Valentine' and setting in motion a tradition that we've continued into modernity.

However, even the Lovely, Loving Ladies of LoveJonesLifestyle have not been spared the "hate"...yes, even love has haters,it comes in the form of broken hearts, disbelief, indifference and infidelity...remember this?



As we've said before, this Lifestyle is NOT for the faint of heart.

We love.

We lose.

We hurt.

But in the end, we must choose.

I choose to stand on the side of love.

My life, and my Valentine's Days are filled with much more love than not. My Valentine memories are filled with flowers from my dad delivered at school, hand drawn cards from boyfriends, candies from coworkers, and dinners with girlfriends during my single years. I love love, and I LOVE the celebration of love. Sister blogger Chandra Kamaria will call me the eternal optimist, but its true. Despite the materialism, consumption overload, and mindless one time shows of affection, that the holiday has become, I still have hope for love. Not the commercialized, syrupy sweet, "you'll find yourself on the couch if I don't get diamonds" -type of love, but the real thing.

You know, that kind of love of self that makes us say, "you know what, I AM gonna go get me a bouquet of flowers today, just to brighten up my living room." Or the kind of love that says,"I'm happy just BEing with you, now let me run you a bubble bath," or "honey, scratch my dandruff." The kind of love that says "girl, we will NOT spend our Valentine's Day lamenting our single-hood, but celebrating all that we've accomplished and learned, and being happy we've made it to this point! We LOVE life!!"

That's the legacy of Valentines day for me. As I've grown out of girlhood, daddy's flower deliveries, and love note from boyfriends, I've learned that LOVE should come as naturally as LIFE. It should be celebrated daily. Therefore, I choose to live in a space where peace guides my planet, and love guides my sun. A new day is dawning Lovers....which side will you choose?