Hugging my sister enthusiastically when she visited NY

I wanted to share with you a delightful post by one of my favorite new (to me) bloggers, Girl on the Contrary. It’s all about hugs, and is linked below. I am a huge fan of hugging–it’s up there with kissing, compliments, dancing, and smiling. Yup, I think those are my top 5 stellar things to give and get. I’ll get a hug just about any way my friends/family want to give it. In fact, I hug my sister and mom regularly even though they live in the midwest and I live on the east coast. How? Well, sometimes at the end of a particularly touching phone conversation, we’ll do a “mental hug” where we both for a few seconds imagine we are hugging each other (basically replaying a memory of hugging in my mind). And it works. I always feel hugged, held, comforted, loved. It’s awesome.

There is a whole part of the art world that designates an act as a work of art. And there have been artists who HUG as their work of art. Of course I think this is fabulous, so here is a great video about the group Praxis and the piece they did for a previous Whitney Biennial exhibition:

Hugs as art

And another totally awesome video:

HUGS!!! and More Hugs! — check out the Free Hugs Campaign — it’s awesome and gives me warm fuzzies.

So here’s a challenge for you: hug someone every day (pets count–and if you’re a hermit, pillows do too). For some it might be easy, while for others maybe they’re a bit out of practice? I imagine it’s like riding a bike: a little uncomfortable at first, but eventually as natural as walking down the street! So, if you’re out of practice, give it a shot. It’ll get better and then I bet you’ll be like Girl on the Contrary–just longing to hug everyone! And maybe you’ll even declare your own free hug campaign in your town! Cheers!

🙂

Here’s the blog about hugs from Girl on the Contrary:

I really do want to hug strangers sometimes. Like when I see someone walking by themselves without a smile, I just want to hug them. They probably need a hug. Or if I notice someone being really mean to someone else I just want to grab them both into a big hug and just let the love flow through me to them. If I acted on this impulse I am 100% sure I could single-handedly create world peace. Or get murdered. Is this odd? People seem to think this … Read More

via Girl on the Contrary