In a few days Valentine's Day will be celebrated, and I have a very personal view of this date. For many it will be a day when saying "I love you" will be almost forced, others will look forward to it as a day to strengthen their commitment, others will feel lonely and dejected after a recent break-up or a long-ago loss. There will also be those who will sit next to their departed lifelong love and sip their favourite dessert or stroll the streets where they gave each other loving glances, gratefully paying tribute to the opportunity to have known that true love. Perhaps they will give each other "forever" rings or enjoy a simple declaration on a napkin in a roadside bar. Each of us will live that day from our own experience, all are valid of course, but personally I will live it as a commitment that I made long ago with life itself, which gives me the enormous gift of feeling intensely what surrounds me, sharing it through my works.

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Falling in love is an incredible feeling, whether it is reciprocated or not, it is always wonderful to feel that special connection with a person who brings out the best in us, who inspires us and accompanies us... freely. There is no better love than that which generously helps us to fly and we can offer nothing better than to wish the best, from the heart, to those who need to open their wings. Whoever feels free will come back to us whenever he wants, but always free, nothing unites us so much to the other as the freedom to be ourselves, to share our fears and our dreams. It is not an easy task and not everyone will understand it, but we must start by feeling capable of loving the other with this generosity. No one owes us anything, least of all love. Love is always given, life offers it to us every day in a thousand ways... you just have to be attentive and discover it in everything that surrounds us.

Loving life is what I will celebrate that day. The unconditional friendship, the lessons learned, the tears, the laughter, the incredible details given to me by those who love me, without knowing it. The heartfelt words, the shared silences, the kilometric distance that disappears with a thought, the hug that always comforts because it was given with the soul. To feel alive is to know love.

To fall in love with who we have become, to learn to tell that friend that he or she is important, to give thanks for the moments when the emotion we feel makes our heart beat through our eyes. To have someone to stop time with, to pause...

To stop to be grateful for what we have lived and also to give ourselves a gift, for bearing with ourselves, for having the courage to forgive ourselves and get up again, for looking at ourselves in the mirror and seeing ourselves grow old, for laughing at an absurd nonsense, for crying with the pain of the other. To feel that we are alive is reason enough to share the love we have inside us, even if it is not reciprocated or seen as selfish. The view of others should not condition us, many will be those who are grateful for this kind, close, human gesture, which fills the world with humanity. Each one of us fights an internal battle, despite the smile that conceals it, being kind and smiling is the most elementary sign of love and has an incredible strength when someone gives us that gift... It gives us confidence and hope to move forward, it takes away our fear.

To fall in love with life and celebrate it, that is my wish for Valentine's Day. To be brave enough to tell each other that we love each other as we are and that we will try to be a little better. To give ourselves a walk, a call to that friend we haven't seen for a long time, to smile a little more and let our eyes shine because we know we possess this infinite strength.

Happy life, happy love!

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