FEB 14, 2020 – Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s fun to stop and imagine all our loved ones opening their cards and feeling our love today. ❤️ Just thinking of Cardies tucking one of our new minicards into a pretty bouquet is very gratifying to me, and brings back a crazy Valentine’s Day memory …

Pre-Cardthartic, when I had my Chicago PR firm, I’d begun dating a surprisingly likable litigator just weeks before Valentine’s Day. To mark the holiday, he sent me roses so big and many that they coulda been a bush. I’m not kidding; our office receptionist had to lead the poor delivery guy by the arm back to my office because he could not see over, around or through those three dozen huge red roses in their humungous vase.

I knew by the rapturous look on my colleagues’ faces that I was supposed to feel flattered and pleased but, in truth, I was mortified. Anyone who knows me well can tell you that I’m actually kinda shy and not at all in to “Look at me! Look at me!” As you can probably tell by our cards, I tend toward simple, intimate and understated rather than showy. So when I called my suitor to express my thanks, I asked “just out of curiosity” how he’d decided the delivery should go to my bustling office versus the privacy of my home. He gushed with obvious pride, “I thought you’d want your staff to see what a great new boyfriend you have!”

Ok, so he didn’t last long :) but he did teach me a wonderful lesson about love. He showed me that we all have our ways, each of us giving and receiving love very differently. For example, when I ended that call with him feeling not at all seen, but having seen his showboat tendencies more clearly indeed, the receptionist/floral escort popped in to express her admiration for my megabouquet. “I only WISH someone would give me flowers like these!” Terri said, and moments later had her wish come true. We had to guide her back to her desk and later into a taxi home because no-way were those flowers going to make it on the bus but, whereas I was turned off, she was thrilled.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, here’s a fun quiz to clarify Your love language and maybe help you get more love of the kind you need. My quiz results rang true, and I’m thinking many Cardies will identify: In love language, “Acts of Service” speak to me. So, according to this — to get through to me — my friends, lovers and family alike would do well to, “Use action phrases like ‘I’ll help!’ and show you’re willing to partner on things.” So true!

Case in point: Last Saturday morning I mentioned to my dear friend and now two-doors-down neighbor, 96-year-old Hannlis, that I planned to try a new frittata recipe. “I’ll help!” she said (without even having read Love Languages!) and then offered to do all the veggie slicing and dicing. Now, I ask you, who wouldn’t feel loved when a friend shows up and, from the basket of her walker, pulls out three knives and a peeler?!

Here’s to your loving and feeling loved through-and-through today, and in all the days that follow.

 jodee stevens
founder & chief creative