HaPpY VALENTINE's DAY or Happy February 14th!

 The Gift of Lasting Love 

Helen Steiner Rice


Love is much more than a tender caress

and more than bright hours of happiness,

For a lasting love is made up of sharing

both hours that are joyous and also despairing.

It's made up of patience and deep understanding

and never of selfish and stubborn demanding.

It's made up of climbing steep hills together,

facing with courage life's stormiest weather.

Nothing on earth or in heaven can part

a love that has grown to be part of the heart.

And just like the sun and the stars and the sea,

this love will go on through eternity --

For true love lives on when earthly things die,

for it's part of the Spirit that soars to the sky.