BECOMING YOUR OWN

VALENTINE

Have you been looking for a special someone to love you just the way your are? Are you hoping you will meet someone who will cherish and adore you and be happy to give you whatever you require? Wouldn’t it be great if this person was rather like a perfect prince or princess?

As a child I had a record that told the fairy tale about Rapuznel. She was a beautiful princess who was locked high in a tower in the middle of the woods by a witch. Rapunzel had no contact with anyone other than the witch, who brought her meals up by climbing the tower on Rapunzel’s amazingly long hair. I always remembered Rapunzel’s song of longing from that record. She plaintively sang, "Alone in my tower I spend every day. I wish some handsome prince would take me away."

Another favorite record of mine centered on the story of Cinderella. As she did all the housework for her wicked stepmother and stepsisters, she sang ""Some day my prince will come."

I could sing those songs for you today, having sung them often as a child. Maybe I’m just a really slow learner, because it was in my 40s that I realized my prince wasn’t coming anytime soon and I’d better start making my art consulting business a success rather than waiting for the perfect prince to arrive and take care of me. The day this realization dawned on me is burned in my memory. I’d left my career as an art teacher in Wisconsin, and wasn’t setting any records as an art consultant.

Shockingly, several would-be princes passed right through my life. None of them really could live up to the Standards for a Prince I had laid out for them. I knew I was awesomely lovable just the way I was! The problem had to be the under-performing prince.

Eventually, though, I learned that that self-love must come first and is the key to finding love in the world, from a special partner or anyone else. I realized that giving myself more love was the way to have more love to offer others and to accomplish my other goals. I learned that giving myself love first caused me to have more love to give to others. I was giving, then, from a feeling of fullness rather than depletion. I had more to offer the world.

If you choose to commit to being your own Valentine first, rather than looking for that special someone "out there," the love you seek from others will find you. It could include that special partner who will love you the way you are because that’s how you love yourself. Below is a profound exercise.

Stand in front of a mirror for five to ten minutes twice a day and say "I love you." Open your heart wide to give yourself a lot of love and ask your Creator and other spirits of a high love vibration to join you in filling yourself with love.

This does not take much big time daily, yet it will produce results quickly. You will have better health, more satisfying relationships, greater financial abundance, and greater job satisfaction. You will become a joyful person who easily attracts what you desire.

Are you ready to have this be the best year of your life? It will be if you work consistently on loving yourself. I’d love it if you would let me know about the wonderful things that start happening in your life!

Shala Kilmer is a Spiritualist Minister with a Master’s Degree in Education. She offers Spiritual Counseling, Psychic Mediumship, Channeling and Past Life Regressions as well as classes on developing your ability to channel and develop your own psychic gifts. Contact her at: 248.258.8287.

shalakilmer@comcast.net,