Love and bacon hovered in the air of the Smalley house one sunny morning when Annie, 7, came to breakfast. <\/p>\n
A \u201cbaconaholic,\u201d according to her father, Annie spied the last remaining strips of the intoxicating salty meat on a plate. She could easily have inhaled them all. But incoming was Annie’s sister, Murphy, 16, another bacon devotee. Annie paused and decided to offer one strip of crispy goodness to her sister. \u201cDad,\u201d she declared, “\u201cI just laid down my life for Murphy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps, Greg Smalley reminded his daughter, the pig had sacrificed more. But what struck him was the choice. The sisters had a history of generosity toward each other, but Annie had given up something important \u2014 a massive understatement for any bacon lover \u2014 for Murphy’s delight. \u201cLove,” Smalley said by email, “is built on small, daily sacrifices that quietly say, ‘You matter.’\u201d<\/p>\n
In doing so, Annie arguably had gotten the love part right \u2014 a universal goal that’s been sought and debated across borders, politics and religions for as long as people have been writing things down. <\/p>\n
Ahead of Valentine’s Day 2026, with the card and chocolate industries eager to help, loving someone well \u2014 a romantic partner, a parent, a child, a pet and especially yourself \u2014 can seem as perplexing as ever. It depends on what you want, and don’t, as well as what others want from you \u2014 now and in five minutes, relentlessly.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTeam USA’s Sophia Kirkby, who called herself the \u201cmost eligible bachelorette\u201d of the Winter Olympics, slid into fifth place in women\u2019s doubles luge\u2019s Olympic debut.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Love stinks, love bites, love hurts: What history says about loving well<\/p>\n
Across traditions and philosophies, love is generally defined as an ongoing moral choice that requires truthfulness and accountability. What it’s not, those texts widely say: controlling, unconditional or abusive.<\/p>\n
Aristotle wrote that to love, a person \u201cwishes and does what is good, or seems to, for the sake of his friend.\u201d St. Thomas Aquinas taught that, \u201cto love is to will the good of the other.\u201d The Old Testament includes a famous directive, translated roughly: \u201cLove your neighbor as yourself.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cLove,\u201d wrote the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, \u201ccan be defined as a wish that others be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
It’s all pretty lofty-sounding, so The Associated Press asked people around the world how they got love part right in real, contemporary life. Here’s what they said. <\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tValentine\u2019s Day likely began as a feast day for a Christian martyr executed by the Roman emperor, according to History.com.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Las Vegas: Knowing each other well enough to give the right gifts<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, I love gift-giving,\u201d said Ally Fernandez of Las Vegas, a seamstress. \u201cI make a lot of my items, and I love making something special and like custom to my person, and I do that for pretty much everybody.”<\/p>\n
For her husband, Fernandez said she did \u201csome really cool, patchwork…It’s just so unexpected when you get something that’s handmade like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her husband, meanwhile, has paid close enough attention to know she loves surprises. One recent date night, he took her to Area15, an immersive entertainment experience in Las Vegas. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou walk through it…and you can interact with all the things around you,” she recalled. \u201cI love things like that, like just things that are different and artsy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Budapest, Hungary: Suffering through Sephora with your makeup-loving lover<\/p>\n
Back home in Budapest, Hungary, there are no Sephora stores. But there are multiples in Paris. So on a recent visit to the French capital, Lili Henzel, 25, couldn’t stay away from the cosmetics giant \u2014 and her husband, Bulcsu Alkay, 23, went along for the ride. Again. And again.<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday, we went to Sephora for five times,” Henzel said in an interview. \u201cIt\u2019s not fun for him, obviously, so I appreciate that a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alkay took it with good humor. \u201cI guess it\u2019s my second home, I would say,\u201d he said. Turning to his wife, he empathized. \u201cBecause you have so much at Sephora and we don\u2019t have it at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
They displayed admirable honesty, appreciation and clear communication.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love makeup, so we had to buy a lot of it,\u201d Henzel explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not really interested in that kind of shopping,\u201d Alkay said. <\/p>\n
Replied Henzel: “Thanks again for that.\u201d <\/p>\n
Los Angeles: Spending enough time together to know when your person, or pet, feels down<\/p>\n
Luis Mitre of Los Angeles says that \u201clove is the most wonderful thing.\u201d He tries to express how he feels to people, but his dogs seem to know automatically. <\/p>\n
That might be because he takes them wherever he goes, even on travel. \u201cThey sense when you’re sad, when you’re happy, even when people don’t,” said Mitre, who also lives in Las Vegas, where he spoke to the AP. \u201cI think they show their love in unexpected ways every single day.”<\/p>\n
Colmar, France: Rooting for each other every day<\/p>\n
Claudia Verdun and Francarlos Betancourt, French visitors to Rome’s romantic Trevi Fountain, took a quick selfie and kissed \u2014 then talked about love.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it is a daily test,” Verdun said. “Little attentions, respect, care for the other, to believe in the other pushing, for the best for him. I think that is important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Betancourt, love is \u201cto help each other with some things, to always be together, starting with your differences \u2014 you have to love each other.<\/p>\n
Beijing: Accepting yourself<\/p>\n
Yi Yi, a Beijing resident, thinks \u201cno relationship is closer than that with oneself.”<\/p>\n
\u201cI think for many people, the most important is that you should really love yourself, fully accept yourself and accept your own vulnerability and shortcomings,\u201d Yi said. \u201cI think these are the most important aspects of love for oneself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brussels: Choosing to keep talking<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we do,” said Joel Stimpfig, 18, who visited Paris from Madrid, \u201cis that we always have good communication and when we\u2019re having a bad day, we always have a little moment to talk and discuss the relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anke Verbeek, 40, and Jari Jacobs, 39, from Brussels, Belgium, \u201chave difficult jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe works late. I work early,” said Verbeek. “So communication is key for being together, for doing things together and keep the relationship alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brazil: Fighting to stand up a healthy family<\/p>\n
Rafael Almeida thinks love has to do with solid planning for the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have already married, and to have children was our big dream together, and we are planning to expand our family,\u201d he said in Rome, on a visit from his home in Brazil.. \u201cWe are planning and fighting for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
But love is also the daily practice of showing “the respect and admiration we have for each other every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colorado Springs, Colorado: Making the bed just because it’s that important to her<\/p>\n
Erin Smalley wanted the bed made. Her husband, Greg Smalley (Annie\u2019s dad), didn\u2019t see why when he\u2019d just have to climb back under the covers in a few hours. Decades of marriage, several children and co-hosting a podcast did little to resolve this ongoing dispute. Until, that is, Greg watched Erin hobble around with a recent foot injury as she made the bed herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know it doesn\u2019t make sense to you,\u201d Erin explained, \u201cBut I really like our bed made. It makes me feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI finally got it,\u201d Greg Smalley, a vice president at Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based Christian nonprofit, wrote in his email. \u201cI realized that this was an opportunity to sacrifice a little bit of my time in the morning for my wife.\u201d<\/p>\n
These days, he says, he makes the bed every day.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Contributing to this story were AP journalists Zheng Liu and Wayne Zhang in Beijing, Trisha Thomas and Silvia Stellacci in Rome, Alex Turnbull in Paris and Rio Yamat in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love and bacon hovered in the air of the Smalley house one sunny morning when Annie, 7, came…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49,30743,69411],"class_list":["post-175262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-relationships","tag-valentines-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}