Valentines Day is a day devoted to love so this card is consistent with that devotion.

I believe we all cherish ourselves and others to the greatest of our capacity all the time. Of course, sometimes our capacity is greater than other times. Because it is true that we can only give what we have, if we want to be more loving and give more to others, we must first have more affection to give.

How do we do that? How do we expand our capacity to love?

Here's the story of my personal expansion:

As a young adult, I wanted to give and receive ardor. I found and gave it with friends, family, and romances. Although many people have added to my ability and willingness to expand my capacity to love, the romance I had with the woman who would become my wife was, to that point in my life, the greatest catalyst in my desire to expand my ability and willingness to be more emotionally generous. I wanted to give to her to such a great degree that I was willing to open myself up to in ways that I was too afraid to open to before. The willingness to open myself was new me and, in all honesty, I wasn't especially good at it. I opened in fits and starts, reverses and miscues.

Unfortunately, part of the reason I wanted to give to her was selfish: I was afraid of abandonment and the part of me that was afraid of abandonment concluded if I gave enough to her, she would never leave me. Ultimately, the conditional love I offered was a

portion of my responsibility in the demise of the marriage.

While we were married, though, two miracles occurred. We had twin daughters and bam! from the moment I knew we were pregnant, I began to open up faster than ever before. And once the girls were born, I looked into their eyes and felt like I was looking directly into the eyes of God, so there was no turning around and no stopping me.

Because I wanted to give my daughters all the love there is to give, I had to expand my capacity so I had more to give. In order to become open to those places where love resided in me but that I kept hidden and protected, I had to become an adventurer, a man with the desire and the courage to sail my ship into unchartered waters so I could discover a greater and deeper love to give. It was always my daughters faces on the horizon calling to me to go further, to discover more so I could give more. At times I was afraid to go deeper into the unknown but every time I answered my daughters call to love, I ended up happier, more fulfilled, and a better man with a greater capacity to love. In the discovering of those places, I not only had more love for my daughters and more ways to show it to them but I also had a greater capacity to love everyone else too. Even more for me. I know there are still times where my capacity is small but I now know these events just point to a place inside of me where I have yet open up and expand.

And here is the most fascinating discovery in my quest: I discovered it wasn't my daughters calling me forward, it was my own call I was answering, the part of me that resides in God, calling me back to the place where I am forever secure and eternally happy and at peace. The more I answered my own call, the more I discovered the greatest love of all, Love Itself, and the more I discovered Love Itself the more I discovered my true Self. I am discovering that I am inside Infinity. I am discovering that God can only create like Himself, so His Kindness created me kind (you too!), His Abundance created me abundant (you too!), His Love created me loving (you too!), His Perfection created me perfect (you too!), His Generosity created me generous (you too!), His ____________ created me __________. (You fill in the blank.) I have discovered that all the interpretations and definitions of myself that are fearful and limiting are mistaken interpretations and definitions.

So now I have taken my daughters off the horizon and invited them onto the deck of the ship with me so together we can discover the new face on the horizon, the faceless Face of God.

So on this day devoted to love, I recommend becoming an adventurer, following your muse to distant horizons through unchartered and dark waters to discover the Perfect Love that is eternally yours, is who (capital "Y") You really are, and that welcomes you Home.