Valentine's Day thoughts...

It's Valentine's Day 2026. This image was taken in February 2011 at the annual Hastings Community parade in Hastings on the Mornington Peninsula. The image suggests so much about how this special day (and beyond) could be, should be.

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— Gemma Wiseman (@gemma77.bsky.social) 14 February 2026 at 10:22

A morning walking party...timed to beat the summer heat later in the day...

Photo taken February 2014 in Melbourne... pic.twitter.com/a9vRD6T0e3

— 🇺🇦🌻Gemma Wiseman-on Wiradjuri land (@AuraGem) February 13, 2026

For some, Valentine's Day is a commercialised mask for how love should be...Others believe that real love simply lives on even in daily routines...

Others feel a pang of pain for what was or even for what has never been...

Valentine's Day can be a very sensitive day...to so many...

Valentine's Day has just passed in my world...

Valentine's Day has just passed

in my world

and your birthday

could have been Monday

in my world

I seem to fall for fractured love

tarnished minds

hearts that have lost a regular rhythm

and blind souls

I ignore that darkness

and only see 

I guess

what I long to see

the art

the creative spirit 

lurking somewhere inside

sadly

unbridled drinking and gambling

slowly squash a love that could have been

one-sided giving and supporting

in the name of love

seeing the good behind the facade

can be a bad thing

if it peels away an identity

peels the identity back to a raw innocence

riddled with excuses and 

misguided determination to carry on

in the name of love

three fishermen in my life

who relentlessly kept fishing

and I let them bait me

one side of me says I should have passed on by

the other side says

perhaps your spirit is best

with the spark 

of another spirit

however briefly lingering

that connecting spark may be

music

art

a wise mind

that is your real joy

your real love

Valentine's Day has just passed

in my world

and still I cannot ignore 

my final awakening

my third and final fisherman

your birthday

could have been Monday

P.S. - NOTE TO SELF

Never be a Charmian Clift to a George Johnston