Maybe Cupid’s aim was off this year and February 14th has conveniently disappeared under a big yellow post-it on your calendar. Maybe the high expectations of making plans for the “most romantic day of the year” have you breathing into a paper bag. Or perhaps you need Pepto-Bismol to stomach that unnatural combination of red and pink. Either way, Valentine’s Day generally guarantees a collective groan from dateless singles and loving couples alike.
 But maybe in all our jaded cynicism we’ve forgotten that the day is about more than having the biggest bouquet and tasting the richest truffles (although any excuse to eat a box of chocolate in one sitting is okay in our book). It’s about pure, untainted, uncomplicated L-O-V-E.
We recall a Valentine’s Day that was about making a mess with glitter and construction paper, digging into piles of Hershey’s Kisses, and wearing pink head-to-toe with no apology. Back then, when Billy shared the big half of his peanut butter sandwich we thought, now this is romance.
 With all the jaded musings on love from Dr. Phil to Carrie Bradshaw to the single woman’s bible He’s Just Not that Into You, we decided to lose the Godiva and Tiffany’s in favor of reviving the days of candy hearts and cards that said “Be Mine.”
And who better to consult on matters of the heart than kids? Asked that age-old question, “What is love?” these tykes made like prophets and offered up some solid answers:
 “Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.”
Read: Let’s take a break from obsessing over the fifty errands we have to run today and start thinking about the people around us. You’ll be surprised how liberating it is to stop reviewing that endless mental to-do list to grab your coworker a morning Latte. Like mom cutting the crust off our bread, we all know the small quiet gestures speak the loudest.
“Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.”
Read: We all need a little affirmation and a simple compliment can go a long way. Just make sure it’s genuine or you’ll have to get used to seeing that appalling paisley sweater.
 “Love is when mommy sees daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.”
Read: Yes, perhaps he could use a shave (that level of scruff is reserved for Johnny Depp) and you wish he’d throw out that ratty AC/DC shirt - it’s not like he even went to the concert - but when it comes down to it, you love him because of him, not because he’s as well pruned as a project on “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.”
Inspired by all this wisdom, we hit the books to find out what the deal is with the unavoidable heart symbol and just how the stylized shape became the icon for love. The Catholic Church claims that the symbol of the heart began in the 1600s when Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque had a vision of a heart shape inside a crown of thorns. However, it turns out the heart shape goes as far back as the 7th century BC in Cyrene where the Silphium plant was celebrated for its successful use as birth control. Apparently it was so popular among the frisky public that the plant became extinct. Coincidentally, its seeds were shaped like hearts and voile! Love and Heart were joined in blissful union.
 Of course the Greeks offer a more romantic reading suggesting that the heart originated with its association with Eros, god of sexual love, aka our fair-weather friend Cupid. Take a look at a Greek amphora circa 500 B.C. and you’ll find party-boy Dionysus, god of wine and feasting, wearing a festive wreath of leaves in the shape of a heart. That might explain why we get all friendly and affectionate towards anyone from the pizza boy to that loud neighbor upstairs after one too many glasses of Merlot.
Fast-forward to the 1700s in Ghana where the Asante people created a hand-embroidered cloth called Adinkra to represent social thought and beliefs. The heart was a huge Adinkra symbol representing love and looked suspiciously like the symbol for wisdom. Perhaps there’s some truth to the old saying “listen to your heart”? Whichever story you want to buy into, we can all agree that when we see hearts, we think love.
 At Alex Woo we like to think there’s a heart for every occasion. We love the Little Pink Ribbon Heart for breast cancer awareness and supporting the women in our lives, the sparkly little Vegas heart is perfect for layering with the Little Numbers, and the Sienna heart is the ultimate casual take on the popular symbol.
Afterall, like the heart, love isn’t reserved for one day a year. As one mini Deepak Chopra suggested, “You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget, and it's good for them to get reminded.” In other words, if Stevie Wonder can just call to say ‘I love you,’ so can you.
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