Happy Valentine’s! Happy celebration of love! (And chocolate, of course.)

Seriously, I’ve been pondering Love. So powerful, despite its overhyped marketing. But even without the “I heart” merchandise, we have a language-level issue: we love caramel lattes and love favourite jeans. Which doesn’t leave much room for when we want to express the depths of our souls.

It would help to clarify this. Because there’s a big role for Love these days (and not the “I heart” kind). It’s time to prep Love for a spot on centre stage, a march into the halls of government, a seat in the boardroom. And we—yes you, dear readers—are just the folks to help Love straighten its lapels, sync its BlackBerry, and grab its briefcase. Yes, it’s time to send Love out to work in the world.

To explain, let’s start in my kitchen. It’s 6:30 am. The twins are up and happy. One blows bubbles. One grins and wiggles. I have fed them gooey cereal. Now I’m making my six-year-old’s lunch for school.

I can scarce describe the satisfaction I feel watching these little people eat. Notwithstanding a rewarding professional life and engagement outside my home, there is something about feeding my family that touches my soul.

This is love, the active kind. Taking care of others in an intimate way is where we understand it. We care for children, elders, spouses, neighbours, best friends. From cuddling a toddler to delivering a casserole, we are accustomed to this type of care.

Women, perhaps, are wired for it. Yes, men can be wonderfully nurturing, but in general, this has been a historic specialty of women, whether by choice or lack of it. We are, generally, emotionally attuned, values-driven, community-focused.

Trouble is, when we started to have more choice, we didn’t always take this specialty along. For a generation, we’ve stretched beyond nurse/teacher/secretary to reach for hard sciences, management, finance. Women often had to fit the existing mould in order to make it—which meant suppressing the expertise of care to compete in a man’s world. Even caregiving done at home was rarely mentioned at work.

Political theorist Joan Tronto argues we must not subjugate care to other values. In an essay in the Boston Review, she writes, “When we care, we do not think of society; we think of our intimates and their concrete and particular needs. In a competitive society, what it means to care well for one’s own children is to make sure that they have a competitive edge against other children…. This example demonstrates that when care is embedded in another framework of values, it does not necessarily lead in a progressive direction.”

This is why February—with its day of Love—seems a good time to challenge ourselves. Let’s dust off our talent for empathy, for caring that heals and transforms. Let’s put Love to work. Let’s break the frames that have accepted third-world poverty, inequitable distribution of medicines, homelessness in our streets, companies with single bottom lines, job descriptions that don’t recognize nurture. If we (savvy, green, and soulful women—men, too) don’t take on this task, who will?

Love is a powerful tool. It bridges differences, build solutions and trust. It creates a climate of excellence without being at anyone’s expense. Love compels us to justice, supports the path to peace, gives us courage to act. But it will only make change if we reject our acceptance of the world that was built when we weren’t at the helm.

In the words of Joan Tronto, “Change can only occur if we radically imagine a societal structure that no longer requires that people compete against each other to make sure that their basic needs will be adequately met. Such a society will conceive of care not as a private good but as a broad and public value.”

Love. It’s not just for the kitchen anymore.

Nina Winham is principal of New Climate Strategies (newclimate.ca [1]), helping clients build value through sustainability practices and effective communications. She wishes you good chocolate and powerful inspiration.