A Lesson in My New Responsibilities

Today on the Hugs Heal Myspace I received messages from two different people who were both very unhappy with me, for two completely different reasons. Before today, the only messages that I had received about Hugs Heal were very positive; wonderful messages sending hugs and love and thanks for starting Hugs Heal. I had never received anything remotely negative. One of these things was not my fault at all, a simple miscommunication that was extremely unfortunate; as for the other, I was wholly at fault. But both messages have made me understand that I have some very important, very new responsibilities that need to be a priority for me.

The first message told me that a friend of Hugs Heal had sent me a previous message asking me to post a very important bulletin about a young woman who had been kidnapped. Since Hugs Heal has so many friends, it makes sense that this request would have been made to me so that as many people as possible would have access to the information about this young woman. However, I never received message, even though according to Myspace, I had. I'm very sad to say that the body of this young woman has been found, too late. To see the information about this, please follow this link: Denise Lee

The other was from another friend of Hugs Heal saying that she had sent me hugs and messages, and that lately she hadn't been hearing back from me. She said that she didn't think it was right that I was sending out messages about the new Hugs Heal Shop when I wasn't even responding to her messages. This is all true. I've been trying to keep up with responding to messages and comments, sending out birthday wishes, designing logos, trying to bring in money for projects for Hugs Heal along with a profit that will allow me to devote myself to it more completely, running my own separate business, getting ready for school to start up (I'm a returning college student), and everything else in my life. I explained all of this to her and she was very understanding, which I'm thankful for, but it still makes me think.

I started Hugs Heal as a way to express the dear love I feel for hugs and how important I believe they are. I never expected for Hugs Heal to become such a huge part of my life, or that so many people would respond to it with such enthusiasm. But now, Hugs Heal has over 2,300 Myspace friends, people who contribute content to it, who send me messages wanting talk or needing the hugs that they feel they can get just by talking with me. Because of all this, I now have a responsibility to these people that I did not have before.

I am now responsible for spreading news that needs to be spread, sharing hugs that need to be shared, posting pictures and stories that need to be posted, and answering messages that need to be answered.

I had not expected these responsibilities, but now that Hugs Heal is so important, especially to me, I will do my very best to do right by it.

Stop The War On Hugs

I have just read yet another article about students getting in trouble for hugging. Personally, I find these "Hug Bans" at school absolutely ridiculous, unnecessary, and potentially harmful to America's youth. Please Click Here to read the article and get a better idea what these rules are about.

Every time I hear about a student being punished for giving their friend a hug, my chest constricts, my face turns red, my hands clench, and let's just say that no one should be asking me any favors. Hugging is such an important part of our lives, and it is especially important to children and teenagers.

These are the years when emotions are already in such turmoil; how can we deny these children the simple and wonderful comfort of a hug? And if our youth grow up not experiencing the incredible power of hugs, how can we expect them to understand how important they are? How much will this effect these children? How will it effect how they treat they kids and grandkids? This is our future we're talking about. Are we headed down a very slippery slope toward an world where freely-given affection will be socially unacceptable?

These bans may seem insignificant to some, but if they are allowed to continue, I believe that they will spread and evolve into stricter and stricter rules banning many expressions of affection. Just how many acts of warmth and friendliness are we willing to allow our children to miss out on?

How can we expect our children to become kind people in adulthood if we punish them for acts of kindness in adolescence?

Hugs

This blog is dedicated to bringing people together and to spreading a message of love and kindness. Hugs Heal is inspired by the awesome healing power of hugs.

A hug is an embrace; to take someone into your arms with caring and affection. But thats not all a hug is. A hug is an expression of love, friendship, and kindness. A hug can heal the world's worst wounds; physical or emotional. A hug can give a person that bit of strength that they need in order to just keep going.

There is a hug for every mood, every ailment. The Comforting Hug for when you're sad, the Happy Hug when you're excited, and of course the Bear Hug; appropriate for all occasions.

My cat starlight hugging his kitty doll!