I do not want to limit my celebration of 'love' to just

Hear the bold words of Sherlyn Chopra, who declared: “I do not want to limit my celebration of ‘love’ to just twenty-four hours in a year. I would like to pamper and be pampered all through the year. And so, the concept of Valentine’s Day does not interest me at all.” In this proclamation lies a wisdom that rises above calendars and customs. She reminds us that love, the most eternal of treasures, should not be confined to the prison of a single day. To bind love to one date is to reduce its vastness, to treat the infinite as if it were finite.

The origin of this truth lies in the nature of human affection itself. Love is not a festival, but a rhythm, a daily practice that sustains life as bread and water sustain the body. Chopra rejects the notion that love must be proven on a single day with roses and gifts, and instead calls us to a higher vision: love should be lived continually, expressed in every season, unchained from the calendar. For when affection becomes constant, it is no longer performance—it is life itself.

History bears witness to this truth. Consider the marriage of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina in ancient Rome. Though Aurelius was an emperor weighed down by wars and governance, it was said that he honored Faustina not with grand feasts on rare occasions, but with steady devotion in daily life. Their union was marked less by ritual displays and more by constancy. This is the spirit of Chopra’s words: that love’s truest power is not in the occasional spectacle, but in the steady stream of care that endures through time.

The ancients, too, spoke with one voice on this matter. Did not the poets of old remind us that love is like the sun, rising each morning, faithful and constant? Did not the scriptures exalt daily compassion above ritual offerings? The lesson resounds: a single feast cannot contain the vastness of devotion, just as a single drop cannot contain the ocean. To confine love to one day is to misunderstand its nature.

Yet Chopra’s words also challenge the modern age, where Valentine’s Day has been shaped into a spectacle of commerce. Restaurants overflow, gifts are exchanged, advertisements clamor that devotion must be proven through purchase. But she turns away from this shallow ritual, declaring that she desires not a once-a-year pampering, but a love that endures through all days. Her wisdom reminds us that love is not an annual performance but a daily covenant.

What lesson, then, must we take? That love, to be real, must be constant. To celebrate love once a year but neglect it in daily life is to miss its essence. Far better is the couple who cherishes each other in the quiet of ordinary days than those who lavish gifts on Valentine’s but neglect each other the rest of the year. Love should be like a flame that never dies, not a firework that bursts brightly for a moment and then fades into darkness.

Practical action follows naturally. Do not wait for the fourteenth of February to honor those you love. Speak kind words each day. Offer gestures of care without prompting. Pamper those close to you in small, steady ways, and allow yourself to receive their love in return. Let your life be a continuous Valentine’s, where affection is woven into every hour, and where no one must wait for a holiday to feel cherished. For the truest celebration of love is not marked on a calendar, but lived in the constancy of daily devotion.

So let Sherlyn Chopra’s words echo across generations: “I do not want to limit my celebration of love to just twenty-four hours in a year.” Let them remind us that love, like the stars, shines not once but always. If we embrace this wisdom, we shall find that every day becomes a festival, every moment an opportunity to give and to receive. For love unbound by time is love that endures, and love that endures is the greatest gift of all.