Happy Val♥ntine's Day!

On Valentine's Day, I love to see the flower trucks running from one business to the other. I love seeing the boyfriends and husbands standing in the Hallmark line on Valentine's Day during their lunch hour sweating bullets (no pun intended) after all the really cute cards are all picked over and gone. 

And I love the thought that every person has a soul mate.... a 'split-part'.  

The Split-Apart Theory -- The first ever written reference to each person having a destined mate was given from the ancient Greek philosopher, Plato (427 BC-348 BC). Plato's theory was that each human being is part of one soul, in which they only have half of. The idea is that the soul was "split-apart" and separated from each other– and, since that time, the two halves have been forever searching for one another in order to join together and regain their sense of original created wholeness. 

And here's a fairy-tale movie you might enjoy about mismatched people finding their way to their proper mates (their split-apart). It's called The Butcher's Wife. It's about a Greenwich Village butcher who returns from a NC fishing trip, and he can't wait to show off his prize catch....his beautiful wife, a country clairvoyant named Marina (Demi Moore). But the butcher's pride turns to prime concern when he hears gossip about a backwoods psychic whose charms are turning hardened city dwellers into love-struck kids. Great cast: Demi Moore, Jeff Daniels, Mary Steenburgen and Frances MacDormand. 

  

However you spend your Valentine's Day, I hope it is with someone who still makes your heart skip a beat when you get a text message in the middle of the day and she tells you your arms still drive her crazy. Or you text her to tell her she has nice legs, even though she knows she doesn't. The one who still surprises you with the teeniest little things so you can't wait to get home at night.  ♥

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All of the above vintage valentine cards were found on Pinterest.

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That Pooh....he was a wise old bear!
(Picture credit: Pinterest)

What a mother sees.....

In December 2009, four officers came to my very first dinner. That was over 4-1/2 years ago and I remember exactly what I served -- lasagna, salad, garlic toast, sweet tea, and I think I made a cheesecake for dessert.  

One officer reached out to give me a hug to say thank you before he left. I patted him on the back (my secret way of checking to see if he had his bullet proof vest on, and he did), and I thought to myself that very first night, "Oh my gosh...you're just a baby to have such a big and dangerous job!" And I can say this to some of these officers because I AM, after all, old enough to be their mother.    

So many of these officers right out of the academy are so young, but they have been put through the endurance wringer with extensive testing and training (written, psychological, and physical.) They have chosen a noble profession and certainly not a profession for the faint of heart.  

Whether an officer is 21 or 51 they are out there doing what they love....serving and protecting their community, and so many in very volatile and dangerous areas.    

In reality, they may look like this.....

Picture credit: Tampa Police Department (my hometown)

But in a mother's eyes, they will always look like this.

    

~  ~  ~  ~

What is a policeman ~ by Paul Harvey

~  ~  ~  ~

"When God Made Police Officers"

When the Lord was creating Police Officers,
he was into his sixth day of
overtime when an angel appeared and said,
"You're doing a lot of fiddling
around on this one."

And the Lord said, "Have you read the spec on this order?
A Police Officer has to be able to run five miles through
alleys in the dark, scale walls, enter
homes the health inspector wouldn't touch,
and not wrinkle his uniform.
He has to be able to sit in an undercover car
all day on a stakeout, cover
a homicide scene that night, canvass the
neighborhood for witnesses, and
testify in court the next day."

"He has to be in top physical condition at all times,
running on black coffee and half-eaten meals.
And he has to have six pairs of hands."
The angel shook her head slowly and said,
"Six pairs of hands... no way."
"It's not the hands that are causing me problems,"
said the Lord, "it's the
three pairs of eyes an Officer has to have."
"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel.

The Lord nodded.
"One pair that sees through a bulge in a pocket
before he asks: May I see
what's in there, sir?
(When he already knows.)
Another pair here in the side of his head
for his partner's safety.
And another pair of eyes here in front that
can look reassuringly
at a bleeding victim and say:
You'll be all right ma'am."
(When he knows it isn't so.)

"Lord," said the angel, touching his sleeve,
"rest and work on this tomorrow."
"I can't," said the Lord, "I already have a
model that can talk a 250 pound drunk into a patrol
car without incident and feed a family of five
on a civil service paycheck."
The angel circled the model of the police
officer very slowly, "Can it think?" she asked.

"You bet," said the Lord. "It can tell you the
elements of a hundred crimes; recite Miranda warnings
in its sleep; detain, investigate,
search, and arrest a gang member on the street
in less time than it takes five learned judges to debate
the legality of the stop... and still,
it keeps its sense of humor."

"This officer also has phenomenal personal
control. He can deal with crime scenes painted in hell,
coax a confession from a child abuser, comfort a murder
victim's family, and then read in the daily
paper how law enforcement isn't sensitive to the
rights of criminal suspects."

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger
across the cheek of the police officer. "There's a leak,"

she pronounced. "I told you that you were trying to
put too much into this model."
"That's not a leak," said the Lord, "it's a tear."
"What's the tear for?" asked the angel.
"It's for bottled-up emotions, for fallen comrades,
for commitment to that funny piece of cloth called the
American flag, and for justice."
"You're a genius," said the angel.
The Lord looked somber.

"I didn't put it there," he said.

~ Author Unkown

Note:  I would like to point out that the above poem "When God Made Police Officers" was adapted by an original story by the late Erma Bombeck.  I didn't realize it until a friend mentioned it.  The story I found had no author's name linked to it.  Nobody could tell a story like Erma Bombeck. She was an extremely talented writer and a very funny lady.  Click here for her original story entitled "When God Created Mothers."

Picture credit:  Boy Officer (Google) and K9-Kid from Facebook.

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