Hugs

Hugs are good.  Hugs are great.  Even the loud, half asleep ones, at silly o’clock. 

I wasn’t always so fond of hugs.

But my boys learned me.  They showed me the warm and fuzzy way. 

Over the last few years I have seen too many people depart from this world to be awkward about a hug anymore.

When Lovely Liam was but a wee baby, he would wake at the aforementioned silly o’clock for a kiss and a hug. 

It was hard.  It was frustrating.  But that was what he wanted and he wasn’t going back to sleep until he got one. 

Today, at four years old, he will turn to me, countless times every day and tell me he loves me.  Sometimes he punctuates it a wink, deadly serious, and returns to his telly watching. 

Once I found him staring straight at me. He silently mouthed “I love you,” nodded and 

looked away.

I told myself it was not a bit weird, it was lovely and one day, not too far away in the near future, there will come a time when all four of them will cross the road in order not to be seen with me.

That could be starting already.

Shy Boy will run ahead at the school gate of a morning so I can’t kiss him goodbye.  But he wants me to give chase and of course I do, because he really does want that kiss and cuddle before he goes to his classroom, even if he goes about it in a not so obvious way.

Oldest Boy has already looked at me with sheer horror and fear when I ask him for a kiss gate.

Alas, he means it so I don’t pursue.

According to mindbodygreen.com we need at least 8 hugs a day and being enveloped by someone can raise your serotonin levels, which elevates your mood.

You’ll be glad to hear they also reckon a hug can strengthen your immune system.   

Amongst other things hugging boosts self-esteem, relaxes muscles, balances the nervous system and my favourite claim is they teach us how to give and receive.

So go on.  Give someone a free hug today.

It’s not a bit weird.

You know you want to.