Today is a good day to start telling people you love them.

Valentine’s Day, 1974. I remember the night before … My mom bought a box of Looney Tunes Valentine’s cards so I could address them for my classmates in Mrs. Moore’s fifth-grade class. I grabbed my pen and neatly wrote each classmate’s name on an envelope. Then I began to compose some of the best Valentine’s Day prose of the seventies on each card. “You’re cool.” “Happy Valentine’s Day!” “Stay groovy.” The poetry flowed effortlessly.

I arrived to school a few minutes early the next day and proudly distributed the cards on everyone’s desk. They did the same when they got there. And one by one, each of the twenty-some of us had a Valentine card from every person in the class. I remember how special I felt reading all of the cards in the envelopes addressed to me, and it warmed my heart to watch my classmates open and read theirs.

If you’re like me, sometimes we get so busy in our days that we forget to tell the people around us how much we appreciate them. How much we love them. I find it a breath of fresh air when I do that and when others tell me how much they appreciate me. Today, on the Day of Love, Valentine’s Day, I am reminded of a conversation I had with my Dad just a day or so before he died. He said, “Tell people you love them. Don’t wait. Tell them right when you think of them.” I was a young, twenty-four-year-old man when I lost my father to cancer, and most of the wisdom he shared with me in his last days wasn’t really appreciated until years later.

As I mature (that’s a polite way of saying “I’m getting older”), and experience more of life’s ups and downs, I have come to appreciate the simple wisdom of telling people I love them. I show appreciation to the barista making my coffee. A custodian taking care of our offices. The young woman pumping my gas. My colleagues. My kids. My wife.

All of us enjoy moments with various people in our lives. So, don’t wait to tell others you appreciate them. And definitely don’t wait to tell people you love just how much you love them. Whether it’s a few, simple words, a hug, or a Looney Tune Valentine’s Day card, stop, and take time to express your love and gratitude. It makes people feel special. And you will feel pretty good as well.

 Happy Valentine’s Day!

Oh, and “stay groovy!”