Written in the Sand

Posted on February 28, 2026 by Mike Nelson Pedde — Leave a reply

Hi Folks: Mobility issues kept us both away from the shore last year (and it’s only 200m away) but Mike has been able to get there three times this year. This was left during the last visit… and we had our first customers within five minutes! Of course, by the next day the tide had washed it away, but that’s okay too. A part of the appeal for us is that unless we’re actually standing there we don’t see who partakes in our offer of a hugging space, but we’re pleased with the idea that some do. They carry those memories forward.

Hug someone you love today. Or a stranger. Or, preferably, both!

Hugs,
M&M

Always…

Posted on January 15, 2026 by Mike Nelson Pedde — Leave a reply

This image is from the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation and shows a grandmother and granddaughter sharing a hug. The text reads,

(click on the image to see the original page)

Remember to hug someone you love today. Or a stranger. Or, preferably, both!!

Hugs,
M&M

PS. Would 1 million hugs help you heal?

Traveling the World Getting One Million Hugs Helped Me Heal After Losing My Brother on 9/11

Happy Canada Day!!

Posted on July 1, 2025 by Mike Nelson Pedde — Leave a reply

Happy Canada Day, folks!! Many thanks for celebrating this day and our beautiful home with us!!

Hugs,
M&M

P.S. A reminder that next Saturday (July 5, 2025) is International Free Hugs Day! Let your hugging inhibitions go and embrace the love!!

Sixteen Years of Hugging

Posted on June 8, 2025 by Mike Nelson Pedde — Leave a reply

Hi Folks:

June 8 is a very special day for us, for several reasons. First, for the world in general, June 8 is World Ocean Day. Not only do the world’s oceans cover over 70% of the earth’s surface, but they hold 97% of the world’s water. Keeping our oceans healthy is vital in so many ways it would be impossible to begin to list them all.

Second, June 8 is the Anniversary of Marcia’s marriage proposal. Yes, it was 26 years ago, and after giving it due consideration (for less than half a second), of course Mike said yes. No fool he. We continue to feed each other every day.

And third, June 8, 2010 was the advent of our Free Hugs sessions in downtown Victoria. In 11 years we shared hugs with locals and tens of thousands of visitors to our fair city from (at least) 88 countries. Every hug is unique and special and we treasure each and every one of them. Our only rule was that we offered, but those who were interested had to come to us.

The illustrious Marcia, Free Hugs poster in hand, during our first Free Hugs session (image © A. Licht)

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Happy Canada Day!!

Posted on July 1, 2024 by Mike Nelson Pedde — Leave a reply

Happy Canada Day folks … to all of those born here, and to all those who have found their way to our shores. Remember to hug the ones you love today. Or a stranger. Or, preferably, both!!

Hugs,
M&M

P.S. A shout-out today to our wonderful friend Glennis, who wrote this beautiful poem back in 2019: Free Hugs

P.S. II, the sequel – a reminder that next Saturday (July 6, 2024) is International Free Hugs Day! Let your hugging inhibitions go and embrace the love!!

Sharing Hugs on Canada Day

Posted on July 1, 2023 by Mike Nelson Pedde — 2 Comments ↓

Hi Folks:

This being the first Saturday in July, as you’re likely well aware, today is International Free Hugs Day! If you’re lucky enough to live here, today is also Canada Day! 🇨🇦

To that end we thought we’d combine the celebrations and take our sidewalk chalk down to our old hugging spot at the Homecoming Memorial. For full disclosure, we scanned the Canada flag image into the computer and used CorelDraw to create and print out the template.

We had fun making the drawing and interacting with those who stopped to chat, and when we were finished cleaning up, we retired to a nearby bench to people watch. While it felt a little strange not to be there with our FREE HUGS posters, in the short time we were there we were immensely gratified to see people stop to photograph the hugging spot and even more so to watch two couples and a group of three engage in hugs at our hugging spot! We know our hugging tree (a western white pine) was also happy to witness these events.

Speaking of our hugging tree, the oldest image we have is from July 2, 2011. At that time our tree was a sapling, barely reaching the top of the fence:

Eleven years later, you may notice that our tree has grown, just a little bit. We’ve been feeding them love, hugs and gentle needle caresses for 14 years.

A very tall image showing Marcia standing in front of our hugging tree, with the chalk art before her. The pine tree is now approaching 30 ft tall.

Same hat, same jacket, same beautiful smile. 🙂

We had such fun downtown that we decided to use the same pattern to update the hugging spot in front of our house.

So, if you’re in Canada, help us celebrate Canada Day and International Free Hugs Day by hugging the ones you love! Today and every day…

Hugs,
M&M

We Have Huggers!!

Posted on May 21, 2022 by Mike Nelson Pedde — 2 Comments ↓

Hi Folks:

If you follow our blog you’ll know that for some 11 years we took our FREE HUGS posters to downtown Victoria and shared hugs with thousands of locals and visitors from (at least) 88 countries. Sadly, we had to quit in March 2020, and we have yet to return. Someday… In the interim we continue to give out Hug Certificates and we have sent out a smattering of Free Hugs postcards. We also continue to share hugs with loved ones where we can… but yesterday we tried something new…

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Sharing Free Hugs… in Print!!

Posted on October 30, 2021 by Mike Nelson Pedde — Leave a reply

Illustration by Sierra Lundy

Hi Folks:

Several months back the folks at Victoria’s Boulevard magazine added a note inviting any of their readers with the ability to tell a story to submit up to three thousand words for a column called Narrative. Each submission would be considered for publication in an upcoming issue. Since we’re both storytellers we agreed that sharing a bit about our hugging adventures would be the best topic for us!! 🫂

Mike cobbled together the bones of our story and Marcia refined and edited it. We came in at 2995 words. Satisfied, we sent it off … and in August we received an e-mail from the Managing Editor, Susan Lundy, letting us know that our article would be included in the October/November issue. Colour us excited!

The article appears on pages 110-112 of the October/November 2021 issue of Boulevard magazine (Victoria). If you live in Victoria you can find them at businesses and street boxes around the city. However, if that’s not possible for you, you can also read it online.

Many thanks to Susan and all of the staff at Boulevard for sharing our story. Remember to hug someone you love today!

Hugs,
M&M

P.S. If we might be so bold, the rest of the magazine is worth reading too!! 🙂

Victoria’s Boulevard magazine, October/November, 2021

Don’t Call People Out – Call Them In

Posted on August 8, 2021 by Mike Nelson Pedde — Leave a reply

Hi Folks:

We came across this video the other day (presented at TEDMonterey 2021) and had to pass it along. This is the best forum for us to do just that! If you’ve read other of our posts this goes without saying, but we love this woman!