If you are hurting, I would like you to be my valentine. Please be my valentine, friend or stranger. If you are hurting, I choose you.

I know it’s a Hallmark holiday and we don’t need no damn valentines and we should all profess our love on all the days. Fine. Be my 365 Valentine. Today just happens to be the day that I ask. Humor me because I’m choosing to ask you.

I choose you (Pikachu) because for all the pain, there is also love. There are also countless voices rising up and arms reaching out. They hear you and they love you and they support you. They may not comprise the whole, but they are many, mighty, and loud. They are warm and welcoming. Some have known you since before time as you know it. They know your quirks, your habits, and are sometimes struck by all the new ones you’ve acquired.

Others have never met you. Maybe they’ve basked in a few of your digital rays of sunshine. They don’t need to know you to send their love. They just do. They send it because they see how it makes the world better and stronger. Hopefully it can make you a little stronger.

There is so much love. So many open arms. So many shoulders for you to weep on, hands to help you up, forearms to lean on as you cross that threshold. Knees to kneel down onto and arms to reopen and hold you, should you stumble again.

Know that there is always so much love. That’s a challenging truth to internalize, but please try, if you can. It’s OK to reach out and ask for that love. There is nothing pathetic or degrading about announcing that you are short on it and in need. Anyone who wants you to feel your hurt a little more quietly and secretly probably has their own stuff to work out and that’s not something for you to worry about. You will surely be surprised (for you are hurting) when you discover how many casual acquaintances will happily give it to you.

It is hard and scary to ask, so I will do my very best to keep an eye out for you. Please know that if I miss the signs, it was oversight, not lack of love. Never that.

There is always love. There is always so much more of that than you can see.

I love you. Now and always.