From the heart

Another year…another Valentine…Time for romantic cards, flowers, chocolates, perfumes, jewellery, teddy bears and other gifts while movie dates, candle light dinners and romantic strolls in the beaches and parks are in your thoughts.

All these chores need to be done with emotions. Your heart should be in the right place. Love and romance that could be best expressed in the simplest ways to strengthen relationships.

You do not have to be all set and ready for a big date unless it is your first time. Some of you might be thinking that you need to buy an expensive gift just to make your partner feel special. Well you don't have to. I don't know about you, but for me it is not the cost of the gift or the extravagance of the venue that matters. It is the thought that counts. There is nothing more special than a personalized gift.

Let me describe a perfect Valentine gift that one of my friends received from her soul mate.

A self composed verse expressing his sentiments through a SMS in the morning. A beautiful flower picked from the garden along with a small gift he had wrapped in glittering pink wrapping paper. This gift meant the whole world to her especially because he had hand made the small pouch to accommodate her accessories like lipstick, lip gloss, comb and mirror. There was even a small compartment to slide in the peppermints which she usually had after her lunch.

She was touched that he had even noticed such habits and shaped his gift to accommodate such minute details. Inside the pouch were more heartfelt surprises - some memories that he had cherished overtime. The first letter that she had sent him….A rose out of her bridesmaid bouquet at their friend's wedding….The first photograph they had taken together at their university trip…Their first movie ticket to watch ‘Fanaa’ where she cried all the way till the end.

These tokens of remembrance touched her heart to the core. Simple as it seemed, his gifts were meaningful because it showed his loved-one how she is valuable to him.

A couple of years have flown by since that day. Fate intervened. They have been cruelly torn apart. She had searched for his ‘spirit’ in another being all this time. She had wondered if the force of their emotions will reunite them when they have been stranded in two separate worlds. Her search had not been entirely wasted for she had sought out fragments of his personality in several individuals.

These people have become her close friends overtime and have helped her in the ‘healing’ process but in her heart she knows that she will cherish his love forever and he, wherever he might be, will always be hers in the coming lifetimes.

Shehara - [email protected]