Saturday, May 15, 2010

Hug

I had a dream the other night in which I was hugging a friend. That was all there was in the dream--one very nice hug. In real life, this friend is not much able to hug because of not being comfortable hugging.

Some people aren't comfortable hugging for cultural reasons. It's just not the way it was done where they were raised. Fair enough. I can adapt. I kiss people a lot because that's what we did in Portugal and most of Europe. Hugging wasn't really the thing, but we kissed. And that's nice because I like kissing. Many of my African friends just shake hands. I can do that too :-)

Other people aren't comfortable hugging for unspoken reasons that have to do with painful things. I understand that. And I'm sad about it.

Dreaming of a really nice healthy hug made me wake up hopeful. And it made me think of happy huggings, like the way one of my guy friends in Europe would sometimes lift me off the ground when he hugged me. Or the way two of my married friends will completely enfold me in a double hug. Perfect.

So while we're on the topic, let me give a shout out to Carla Trundle Harding for being the world's best hugger. Byron says if you measure a person's health based on their ability to hug, it stands to reason that Carla is the healthiest person on the planet.

I'm thinkin' he's right :-)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love you Lisa! You are absolutely sweet to share your dreams with us, not everyone can do that.

Diane said...

I agree with you so much on the hugging thing. When I met Ian (my now husband) he had not been brought up to hug and my teenagers (boy and girl) taught him how to hug. He still struggles with it with friends but he is getting there. And yes I think he is a more rounded comfortable with himself person because of it

Carolyn said...

Oh, that Byron is such a smart boy! :-)