I love giving and receiving hugs. Sometimes because of circumstances or geography, it is not possible to hold the hand or hug someone who is hurting. So what then?
How about hugging someone else, even a stranger who is hurting, someone who is carrying a heavy burden?
If everyone reached out with a compassionate hug or the holding of hand to every hurting soul that they met, then I believe it would be a much nicer world.
When a hurting soul meets a compassionate soul, wonderful things happen.
I just returned from a shift this evening as a hospice resident support volunteer. I spent time with a dying woman whose husband had passed away many years ago. I sat and spoke with her distraught daughter. I also spent time with another person who was going through some very, very tough personal times, but was slowly on the mend.
These three people had one need in common. There was no one there to hold their hand, to hold them in their arms. Somehow I was able to feel that a holding of a hand and a hug was needed and I held them tenderly. In all three cases, my gesture was well received.
I am not trying to “toot my own horn” by writing this. I write this with a sincere hope that those who read these words will understand the power of human touch.
Very often an act of loving-kindness can never be reciprocated simply due to circumstances. However the beauty of love is that it is self-perpetuating through random distribution.
I hope that people will reach out to those around them who are going through rough times. Sure it is good to follow the maxim “Always be kinder than necessary, you never know the burden that someone is carrying.” But as you do so, you realize a wonderful gift. The “bonus parting gift” is the wonderful feeling that will stay with you for a long, long time. It is the other side of the same coin: “If you do good, you are supposed to feel good.”
- eKim