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The Cricket Story

Now it isn't a very good idea to give a gotcha or guess who hug to someone who is carrying a hot cup of coffee or a plate of food. That's the kind where someone comes up behind you and puts their hands on your eyes or pokes you in the ribs and yells gotcha or guess who.

Some of you may be all by yourself and not always have someone around to hug you and you may have a difficult time filling the hug prescription, which by the way if you haven't memorized it by now is: four for survival, eight for maintenance and 12 for growth--every day.

I know some of you have beloved pets. I'll relent and give half credit for pet hugs, maybe a little more if it's a dog hug because I'm partial to dogs. (Especially to Rose, my grand dog and those I got from my beloved dog, Cinder, who went to doggy heaven many years ago.) Sorry, didn't mean for this story to go to the dogs. A pet does provide companionship, but according to the experts, this isn't enough. (I really am sorry about this, but I have to hug you the truth.)

"Substitutes for human touch, like pets, the accumulation of things and various addictions, including work, power and sex, do not suffice," said Ashley Montagu in his book Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin. Further, John Naisbitt writes in Megatrends, "The more technology around us, the more the need for human touch."

Whatever you do, please don't resort to too many all-by-yourself hugs. Like hugging onto a pillow, unless it's one you need to sleep with. Every night I have two special pillows that I snuggle up to. One is so old that there's not much left of it but it can be punched and puffed into just the right shape. The other is a full body pillow that my knees can snuggle up to and my arms for lots of back support which I need form the back surgery I'll explain in a pinch.

The headache hug causes a person to hold or put something like an ice pack on their head. The poor me hug is best described as someone sitting on the floor with their knees bent and arms wrapped around their legs. The I Like Myself Fake Hug is best described as wrapping your arms around yourself and from the backside it looks as if you might be getting a hug from a very skinny person.

Challenge time: I'd like to encourage you to put those fake hugs aside, muster up some strength from the Lord, and take the initiative to reach out and hug someone else that needs encouragement or a hug. Pick up the phone. (There's a section on Phone hugs in the Hug Thoughts chapter.) Don't wait for someone to call you. It takes just as much energy to sit back and accomplish nothing positive and feel sorry for yourself as it does to pick up the phone and reach out to someone.

Do you remember the Hugga Bunch Gang? It was a group of stuffed dolls popular when my girls were growing up. Huggins who is the leader of the Hugga Bunch gang and her huglet, Hug-A-Bye were in charge of making all the hug assignments to this whole family of stuffed dolls. Their purpose was to spread the joy of hugging to everyone. Their creed was to promise to hug at least once a day and with each hug you get to give two away. Good idea!

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