Sometimes When We Touch

Hugs…don’t we all just love them? Having someone’s arms tighten around you for that brief moment in time brings us peace and a sense of wellbeing.  I know that I love hugs – love the warm, fuzzy feeling they give me.  I’m not talking about intimate hugs between lovers – I’m talking about hugs in general.  I love to hug and receive hugs – sometimes from perfect strangers!

I remember meeting a leader of a Christian band once at a concert I went to with my younger sister and her husband.  I stopped to tell him how much I enjoyed his singing and he gave me a big hug.  It was energizing to be hugged by someone so charismatic.  You know, I can’t remember his name now – LOL – but I bet my sister could. 

I was hugged and kissed twice by Marty Robbins – if you don’t know who he is than you obviously don’t know country music or old cowboy songs.  Talk about walking on cloud nine after his hugs and kisses – he was a legend and my favorite singer (yes, more so even than Elvis!).  When I was a child, Mom would put a stack of Marty’s records on the stereo for me – I could sit there for hours listening and imagining the old west he sung about.

Hugging is good medicine. It transfers energy, and gives the person hugged an emotional boost. You need four hugs a day for survival, eight for maintenance, and twelve for growth. A hug makes you feel good. The skin is the largest organ we have and it needs a great deal of care. A hug can cover a lot of skin and gives the message that you care. It is also a form of communication. It can say things you don’t have words for. The nicest thing about a hug is that you usually can’t give one without getting one.             Author Unknown 

Hugs aren’t always accepted by everyone – I find it rather sad though when someone doesn’t like to be touched even for a brief hug.  They must be very unhappy people which is ironic because a good hug could change their whole outlook.

My longer hugs are reserved for people I know – friends and family.  My son gives excellent hugs but then, he has had a lot of practice over the years.  While living in Florida, I went through hug withdrawal – I’d have to hug people I just met to feed my need for a hug fix. 

Hugs are not only nice they are needed… Hugs can relieve pain and depression.. make the healthier happier, and the most secure even more so.. Hugging feels good and overcomes fear… It provides stretching exercise to short people and stooping exercise to tall people… Hugging does not upset the environment.. It saves heat and energy… requires no special equipment.. Hugging makes happy days happier and impossible days possible.  Author Unknown

Hugs from lovers are great too – feeling strong arms hold you tight against a warm chest so that you can hear his rhythmic breathing and pulsing heartbeat…awesome.  {sigh}…it’s been years since I have had one of those hugs. 

January 21st has been set aside as “National Hugging Day” by whoever decides these things.  While I think it is a travesty if people only get a hug on this day, once a year is better than not at all.  Here are some ideas on how to maximize your hugs for this special day:  Substitute hugs for handshakes, hand out “hug” coupons ahead of time redeemable on 1/21, try to create the longest hugging human chain, and/or hold a hug-a-thon at your home, church or place of work. 

Remember to always ask a stranger permission before hugging them…wouldn’t want any calls to 911 for assault. 

Relocation

I received word the other day that my brother has finally completed his immigration to Canada.  He left Florida, after over 20+ years of living there, for the big Canadian sky.  I got a text message while at the conference in Des Moines that he had, indeed, made it safely to the arms of his new wife.  Bet they are having one heck of a honeymoon!

They were actually married back in March after finding each other via WordPress.  She started leaving messages on his blog – before long they were corresponding, then talking on the phone, eventually taking turns flying to see each other, and finally married.  I am happy for them that they are finally together – it has been a long haul and hard on them both to be so far apart.

How will my brother do in a country so different from the tropics he has called home for decades? I imagine he will be fine as he says it doesn’t matter where he lives as long as he is with his wife.  Yeah, kind of cheesy but he actually means it so guess we’ll let it’s cheesiness pass.

None of his sisters have met this woman who captivated his heart so quickly but several of us have corresponded with her and read her blog.  She sounds every bit as wonderful as my brother claims she is – I wish them both a lifetime of happiness.

Wish I had a Beer

Right now I am sure craving a Corona with a slice of lime.  Don’t ask me why – I hardly ever drink and haven’t had a beer since Melissa’s wedding.  Yet here I sit craving one.  It isn’t alcohol I crave because I have Bahama Mama mix and a bottle of Chardonnay in the refrigerator…neither of those sound good.  Not even a margarita sounds good and that is my favorite mixed drink.

Sometimes I crave a cigarette and yet, oddly enough, I have never smoked my entire life.  I dream sometimes that I am a smoker.  Isn’t that weird? Cigarette smoke bothers me so in reality, I hate them but every now and then I get a craving to light one up.  These are easy cravings to ignore because I never have cigarettes around me. 

Maybe psychologically it isn’t the cigarette I crave but the memories being around cigarettes invoke.  I can remember a lot of weekends spent at my grandmother’s house where the adults would play cards for hours.  They would smoke up the place so badly you had to walk through a fog just to get to the bathroom.  But there was a lot of laughing, camaraderie and happiness during those times so maybe that is what I’m really craving.  All of those adults are dead now.

It is overcast, chilly and wet outside – a perfect day for reading or conjuring up memories of times past.  I seem to be doing the latter as I move through my day.  I have few regrets about the past actually – mostly over people who are gone now.  Like I regret leaving grandma by herself that Christmas when my son and I went down to check on her.  She didn’t want to go with us to the family gathering because she was hoping her children would call her to wish her a Merry Christmas.  None of them did.  I should have been more insistent but how did I know that would be her last Christmas with us?  It was before answering machines and cell phones so she worried if she wasn’t home, she’d miss their calls.

I regret not letting my mother come live with me while she was dying from cancer.  It had nothing to do with her and everything to do with my son who absolutely adored her.  My son got home from school usually an hour or so before I got home from work.  He was 11 or 12 years old at the time.  I was so worried Mom would die while we were gone and he’d be the one to come home to find her.  It would have been so traumatic for him and I couldn’t risk it.  Now I wish I would have found a way to do so – maybe had him go to a neighbors after school instead of home.  I wish they would have had adult daycare back in those days.

My other regrets are for losing two men that were great friends.  Timothy was my best bud in my early teens.  We goofed off together all the time as we came from similar backgrounds and had hit it off immediately.  Talk about two peas in a pod – we were impervious to the world around us.  That was back in simpler days when boys and girls could be friends at that age without even thinking of anything sexual.  I regret losing contact with him as we grew up.  He was killed in an auto accident in our early twenties.

The other guy I can’t talk about because he is still alive and well.  However, I can say that his faith and love gave me hope for the future at a time when I needed it.  While we can’t be friends now – I will always hold him in my heart and wish him all the blessings his life can hold.

Why Me Lord?

Johnny Cash

My two favorite Johnny Cash songs: