So it’s the day of love. To be honest, I try not to make a big deal of it, because, the way I see it, every day ought to be a day of love. Love is the single most powerful force in the universe. It’s also the most difficult thing to describe with words. It can make you feel the deepest of joy and the sharpest of pain. It can pump you up and stomp you down at the same time.

Love has inspired some of the greatest feats of bravery humans have ever achieved. It has been a source of superhuman strength and endurance. Nothing in this world can connect one human to another faster and stronger than love. A mother’s love at the birth of her child is instant, automatic, and lasts forever. When two people fall in love, it binds, consumes and unites them against all obstacles and adversaries. Love fills every empty vessel and keeps it full, as long as it abides.

God’s two greatest commandments are about love. Matthew 22:37-40

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

See? Evidence-based. And just to make sure nobody forgot, He added this in John 13:34 just before he left for Heaven

34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

The thing about love is, it's genuinely the most powerful force in the universe. it defies science, logic, sense, even physics. True love endures. It survives everything - war, disease and death. It doesn't depend on anything to survive. That's why it is unconditional. It can endure all attacks and transcend all judgement.

But for me, the most beautiful thing about love is that It amplifies good and suppresses evil. That's why a serial killer's mother can still love him. No matter how many atrocities he commits, she can look at him and still see her adorable little boy who used to play with his ball on the front porch as a child. That's love: it can find the tiniest diamond in the biggest pile of dirt.

In truth, this is the quality of love that is responsible for long-lasting relationships. Because true love allows you to look upon the worst behaviour of those you love in the most sympathetic way. if in spite of all the hurtful things you and your spouse do to each other, you can still look at each other and see that bright shiny thing that made you fall in love with them in the first place... then nothing in the world can break you.

My dear friend, I want to recommend love to you. Not just today, but for always. Especially Self-love. Understand that you are the most important human in your life, and you deserve the best of everything. Until you are able to love yourself, you can’t love or be loved in the explosive, magical, spiritual way that engulfs you and everyone in your world.

So it starts with you. Just as the flutter of a butterfly’s wings can be the start of a hurricane, so can the flutter of one heart be the beginning of a universal wave of love that can truly make the world go round.

It starts with you, my friend. Love yourself, that others may be loved.

My name is Kojo Yankson...

Happy Valentine’s day, GHANAFO!