Our young friend ran up and down the stairs, searching for paper hearts which each held a clue to help her find the next one. My daughter, Andrea, had put some ingenuity into these clues. One heart was inside the freezer in heart-shaped ice. Finally, our guest found the last heart, which led her to a bag of Valentine’s Day goodies, hidden under a cat patterned blanket.

During February, we are reminded of the issues of the heart. Valentine’s Day is a celebration of romantic love, friendship and family. The Heart and Stroke Foundation raises heart awareness and canvasses for donations to further medical research. It is important to keep our physical hearts in good order through diet and exercise.

The heart is figuratively speaking the place of our emotions. What we feed our spirits and minds is as important as what we feed our bodies.

We all struggle with negative thoughts and emotions. Working through pain, disappointment, sadness and many other feelings is a process. It is helpful to ask, though, whether we are nourishing ourselves from a place of forgiveness and gratitude or a place of bitterness and dejection. We may need to count the small blessings, reach out to others, and remember that life moves on and circumstances change.

Sometimes, we need to be like our little friend, going from one clue to another, enjoying the hunt and anticipating the reward at the end!