February 2026

What Are You Falling In Love With?

T.S. Eliot famously wrote in The Waste Land that “April is the cruellest month.” That may be true, but I’ve always thought that February is the longest month.

Yes, we’ve had Valentine’s Day, Presidents’ Day, Lunar New Year and Mardi Gras. But here in Santa Fe — and in much of the country — it’s been bone-chillingly cold, and spring still feels a long way off.

February has a way of making us wait. Wait for warmth. Wait for motivation. Wait for later.

Yesterday the actor Eric Dane died after a year-long battle with ALS. In a Netflix interview titled Famous Last Words and recorded a few months ago, Dane reflected on what living with a serious illness had taught him:

“Live now, right now, in the present. It’s hard, but I learned to do that.”

That really landed. Because how often do we postpone our lives until conditions improve — until “it’s the right time,” or “I’m in the mood,” or the weather changes, or we feel more certain?

He also shared this advice he gave his children:

“Fall in love with something. Find your passion, your joy (and) find the thing that makes you wanna get up in the morning and drives you through the entire day.”

Yesterday, something small but important happened. We had a new cleaning person come to the house. She did such an extraordinary job that I texted her afterward to thank her again.

She wrote back: “Thank you. I love what I do.”

That stopped me.

Not because her work was glamorous — but because it was wholehearted. She had fallen in love with something. And I could feel it.

So maybe February isn’t just about enduring the cold or counting the days until spring.

Maybe it’s an invitation to live now, not later, and to reconnect with whatever you love enough to give your full attention to.

What’s the thing you’re falling in love with right now?