Free Hugs in Vancouver

Stardate: Friday the 13^th Robson Street boldly driving in downtown Vancouver.

If you are not familiar with Vancouver, Robson is the ‘it’ street in the city. A busy busy place full of delicious people and all things pretty.

Recession or not,  the Friday before Valentine’s Day is even crazier – the sidewalks are jammed, traffic is crawling and like everyone else I’m in a rush to get somewhere when out of the corner of my eye I see a small commotion.

Three young women and men maybe still teens, are standing below the steps of the Art Gallery  holding hand written signs that say ‘FREE HUGS’. 

I watched people suspiciously read the sign, do a double take asking “are you serious?” then grab on for a great big, long heartfelt hug. Everyone was getting into it; young people, old people even a dog got a hug. What really got me was the look of pure joy on their faces as they walked away.

I couldn’t help but wondering how many of these people had not been hugged in months, how many are alone or away from family or without friends.

Boy do we need more of this.  The world is turned upside down with financial doom and gloom everywhere you look and here are these wonderful people offering hugs to anyone and everyone. Who were they and what inspired them to do this?

I asked my friends and store clerks  if they had heard about it; I checked the local papers and TV but no mention of the hug fest. Each person I spoke to was inspired and got ‘goose bumps’ but no one knew what it was or why this was happening. So I wiki’d and googled it.

It turns out it was Free Hugs Day which began 00:01 on Friday February 13 until 00:00 (midnight) on Saturday February 14 in Vancouver.

Wikipedia, Google or Oprah

 Free Hugs Day is a social movement started  back in 2004 in Australia by a man who calls himself Juan Mann who just wanted to cheer people up.  (I’ve added him to my list of Wise Men)

This movement  is now an international event in 80 countries!

 

Free Hugs Italy

I have to say this is the first time I really understand what it means when they say ‘movement’ because I truly felt the hug just by seeing the joy others experienced by it. 

It made my Valentine’s Day special and I reached out to ‘hug’ as many people as I could in person, by phone, email and text.

The next scheduled International Free Hug is July 2009 but why wait – start a movement and go hug someone you love today.

Here’s February!

The best cure for the January blues is February!

I used to have a love hate relationship with February. To me the only redeeming quality of February was Valentine’s Day, my birthday and the occasional excitement of Leap Year. Let’s be honest, in the north – February is a bitterly cold month and I spent most of my young life complaining about it. But not any more. I love February! And here’s why.

It’s called January. Now January is a month that we can’t wait to get here. We prepare and plan the entire month of December for it’s arrival; we count it down on New Year’s Eve wearing new clothes, shoes, champagne, and we party all night!  How festive. Then halfway through the month it we are begging for it to be over.

In my experience there are two types of people who look forward to anything in January beyond New Year’s Day.

The first group are people who were born in January and there are many famous January babies: Elvis Presley, Martin Luther King Jr, Oprah Winfrey, Wayne Gretzky, Sarah McLachlan, Virginia Woolf, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Keys, J.R.R. Tolkien, Paul Newman, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Jack Nicklaus to name a few. These people are super human achievers with a level of success that sets them apart from the rest of us mortals.

I’m guessing being born in January had something to do with it. Sort of like the expression about New York; “If you can make it here you can make it anywhere.” Well if you are born in January I believe it makes you strong and you can overcome or accomplish anything!

The second group is smart people with plane tickets to a tropic island. You know the type; they walk around with grin and you can’t figure out why until they ask you to water their plants while they are in Maui. These people are my heroes.

The rest of us for some reason get depressed, we get sick, or cranky and uninspired. Invariably we hear “You’ve got the January Blues” “Nothing to do but ride it out”. Anything that goes wrong is promptly followed by “It’s January – these things happen in January” We all agree and comfort each other while we ride out the misery of January.

Then all of a sudden February appears and we get energetic and happy! Not sure why but all I know is it is NOT January and that’s good enough.                                                    Groundhog Day

So is that because February is so great or January is so bad? A January baby wouldn’t say so.

But right now, I’m over the flu and I’m in action. I’m smiling and full of optimism, my plans are coming together, ideas becoming concrete, people around me are happy, and I’m happy.

Ahhh the wisdom of February, the month of love and all things not January.

Quote for February

If you are going to ask yourself life-changing questions, be sure to do something with the answers. ~Bo Bennett