I'm a day late with this blog post, so I'm making it super easy for myself and sharing a bit of writing that was completed in April, 2011. This is the day that kicked it all off. Enjoy. xo
HERE I GO, DAY 1 Here I am at the beginning of 365 days of hugs. I did not intend to start today. I had a planned start date of May 1. I thought I needed time to plan and to summon the courage to begin. The more I thought about it though, the more anxious I was becoming at the thought of being so open and vulnerable to so many people. Thinking is highly overrated. My goal throughout this year is to hug as many people as I can with the intention of spreading love to anyone I can reach, hence the blog. I hope to certainly touch the lives of those that I hug, but with technology allowing me to reach beyond physical limitations I intend to take it further. I want to start a chain reaction of love and hugs. Is that too much to ask? Each day I will tally how many hugs I have received and share my experiences with you. To be fair, I will only allow each of my immediate family members to be counted for 1 hug throughout the day because they essentially get one long continuous hug throughout the day anyway. 4 HUGS. That’s how it started. 3 from my immediate family and 1 from my therapist. That’s right, my therapist. I always want to hug her at the end of my sessions because she is helping me through some of the toughest moments of my life, but I have always questioned whether it is appropriate. Appropriate be damned. After my therapy sessions I am generally so emotionally exhausted that a hug is exactly what I need. Even though I did not anticipate it starting today, I asked her for a hug anyway. I thought it might help me get into the practice of asking. Well, AWKWARD…it was probably only me that felt that way because I am not used to putting myself out there this way, but man, that wasn’t the way I wanted to start off my 365 days. Flash forward to a few hours later when I am on the phone with Eliza. She is the 5th person that I have told about my idea, but by far the most enthusiastic. “Why not start today?” she asks. Ummm, well, I have only hugged one other person besides my family and that didn’t go over well. So? You’ve gotta start somewhere. Eliza, you are right and here I am.
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AuthorMelinda Lee is a mom of two adolescent boys, a devout student of all things spiritual, a recovering perfectionist, and immensely fascinated with achieving the unachievable. Currently writing a memoir about hugging strangers. Archives
February 2023
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