When you read this Warm Thoughts column, it will be February and January has come and gone. Where has the month gone so fast? It has been a month of London fog flinging a crystal veil over the heartland, a real winter wonderland. February is heart month - the month of the Groundhog, Valentine's Day, Presidents Day...Did I forget something? February is also the month when many warm thoughts on love come to mind. In his book "How to Love," Arthur H. Rahner Jr states, "It is a selfish world." He defines love as not emotions or feelings, but the willingness to sacrifice for another. When we are selfish and look only to support our own causes, we cannot truly love.

It was many moons ago that a blind friend of mine read the poem, "What is Love?" As her fingers touched each line of braille, my heart's thoughts followed each word. The author is unknown and I would like to share these warm thoughts on love with you: What is love? Love is an attitude. Love is a prayer for a soul in sorrow, a heart in despair. Love is good wishes for the gain of another. Love suffers long with the fault of a brother. Love giveth water to a cup that's run dry. Love reaches low as it can reach high. Seeks not her own at the expense of another. Love reaches God when it reaches our brother. As I meditate on those warm thoughts I'm reminded what Stanley Kruisik once stated, "One can be blind in his eyes, but that doesn't make him blind in his heart."

More Warm Thoughts: Time flies, sun rises and shadows fall. Let time go by, love is forever overall. The last of the human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances. Dr. Viktor Frankl. Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice. But for those who love, time is eternity. Henry Van Dyke.

A letter to Luetta from Riverton, Nebraska, January 13th, 1995. Dear Luetta, Time after time I read your warm thoughts from the little home on the prairie in the Marion Record it seems like I'm so close to where you are, yet too far. That little picture of a barn looks just like the one Baker Smith had and Dolton between our school, where I went for 12 years and the bank. Then your trips to Bethlehem, etc. Seems like you're a traveler alright. Who are you? Where do you live? Your address is very odd. Please give my curiosity a relief. Sincerely, Esther Dirks Herman.

Warm Thoughts from Little Home on the Prairie Over a Cup of Tea by Luetta G. Werner

Published in the Marion Record February 2nd, 1995.

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Till next time,

Trina