Love and Peacocks

Love is in the air. And the malls, the market, and especially, at Hallmark! You catch my drift, here. Valentine's Day is now being mass marketed on a grand scale. At my little castle, Valentine's Day begins January 2; my daughter takes out all the pink and red sparkly decorations and begins transforming our house into Valentine heaven. This year we bought little red heart lights that are draped across our fireplace mantel. My girl would paint the whole house pink if she could (her room is pink, so that's a start). Need I also mention that she draws heart after heart after heart...

So what IS love, anyway? People have been asking that question since the dawn of time, so don't expect the answer from one little blogger. :-) Love makes us crazy. Love makes us ecstatic, it makes us miserable, or sometimes it shows up when we least expect it. Love can be forbidden. Or, perhaps, sometimes it is way out in the open. But there is no doubt that amour is what makes the world go 'round and it certainly keeps things interesting! I am in the process of conducting an informal survey of my Facebook friends as to their favorite love stories, whether in book or film version. Stay tuned for the results! (So far, the responses have been awesome!)

There is a difference, however, between love and romance. Love is a broader category; we love our families (ok, most of the time, anyway), friends, pets, our neighborhood, and even our cars and houses. We should love our significant others, too. LOL! But romance is the icing on the cake, the creme de la creme, the tenderest expression of love between two people. Romance induces sparkles in the eyes, a quickening of the heart, and a feeling of spiritual warmth and connectedness. With romance, we do not feel alone, rather we feel appreciated and cared for in a deep, meaningful way. Besides, romance is fun!

I think the human race has romance backwards on some accounts, however. In the animal kingdom the males are usually the ones who have to preen and make themselves attractive in order to woo a mate into -- how should I say this delicately -- a "romantic interlude". With humans, we rely on the female to utilize the right clothes and cosmetics to make herself appealing to the opposite sex. And perfume! How many studies have been done to determine which fragrances are the sexiest? Oddly enough, I have read that men are turned on by the smell of vanilla on women (they like their sweet treats!). Paradoxically, citrus scents are shown to make men think women are younger. What is a gal to do? Most men don't even wear cologne, let alone care about their skin, hair and nails!

Recently, I was witness to romance at the highest level. I was volunteering at The Gentle Barn, a wonderful place where farm animals (and some dogs and cats) are rescued after being in abusive environments and/or being abandoned. I was working in the Upper Barnyard, brushing sheep, goats, pigs, and some adorable calves (one of which licked my hand -- so cute!). Anyway, there was a gorgeous peacock that started fluffing out his magnificent feathers for all to see. The other farm animals just walked past him and paid no notice to his dramatic display. I was with two other women volunteers. We were amazed at this peacock's beauty, but we couldn't figure out why he was hissing and shaking his feathers, and even his whole body. One lady said the feathers were his line of defense; so we just kept our distance from what we thought was an angry peacock.

Later that day, I was signing out at the front office. I mentioned to the young lady at the front desk that the peacock seemed "pissed off." "Oh no," said the staffer, "he just wants a girlfriend. He is trying to attract a chicken." Poor Mr. Peacock! The only "chicks" who took notice of him that day were of the human kind!