Valentine's Day.  A frenzy of baking, chocolate, sugar sprinkles and crashes, paper hearts, sparkles, stickers and confetti.  As we struggle to show our friends and families a token of affection in a fun and creative way, with our grand ideas being side-lined by the passion of our children's assistance in our projects, with paint on walls, glitter covered carpets, smears of brightly coloured icing across the walls and cupboards that will take weeks to remove the last of it, staying up until midnight to finish pink and purple chocolate chip cupcakes for the pre-school class, worrying about unknown food allergies amongst them, all suffered gladly for the three minutes of pure and unadulterated joy on your toddler's face as he hands out his treats with pride and unguarded love for his friends.  All the work worth it just for that.  But as things wind down and I look forward spending my Valentine's evening at home with my two boys, my thoughts turn to how many limits we place on our love as adults.  We have become a society of people willing to barter our emotions in return for a price.  Only as long as our expectations are met.  What happens though, when none of your expectations are met, when everything is stripped away and the anger fades and you realise that real love survives?  What does that mean in this world of increasingly fickle and shallow relationships?  When the diamonds are gone, the money and security is gone, the future you had always counted on has been altered beyond your wildest dreams, what is the next step?  Accepting the things that were once unacceptable, trusting that there is always a silver lining and start building a new future, a new family, something never imagined.  We are stronger than we ever believe in the beginning and capable of so much more than we can imagine.  In this high tech new world I am struck by how much more important it is becoming to live by the oldest rules we have.  Love, respect, forgive.  Happy Valentines Day, so much more than chocolate, flowers, diamonds and wine.