Maybe Valentine's Day incorporates urgency, thereby serving a dual purpose - setting a definite day to express love - and fixing an expiration. Without a designated day, each day that passes holds no urgency; another day will surely follow and then another- No deadline often means no action.

I once wrote that I did not tell Gene Autry that I loved him. He was my childhood hero and, once an adult, I decided I would write and tell him so. But there was no urgency, plenty of time - or so I thought. When I heard the good man had passed, I was very sad. There would be no more procrastination and no second chance.

The lesson was a good one. I tell people now that I love them. But what about the many people who have given me kindness and care in good times and bad? Have I told them how much I appreciate them?

There are all sorts of ways to be kind. If we stop for a moment and think of all the ways others have touched our hearts and souls and savor those feelings, perhaps we can pass them on to others. Now! Now! Now!

Jean Loxley-Barnard has been a writer all her life and studied both sociology and psychology at George Washington University where she earned a B.A. Her company, The Shopper, Inc., encompasses all the Loxley-Barnard family publications - The Shopper Magazines and Doctor to Doctor Magazine. She has been in the advertising, consulting and publishing business for 39 years.