Hi Folks:

We’ve had so much rain this January that yesterday was our first opportunity to go out hugging this year. We’re not complaining – we’ll appreciate the water supply come summer – but it has put a damper (so to speak) on our hugging activities! Marcia has designated 2020 as a year of vision for her, and 2020 begins our 11^th calendar year of sharing hugs with both locals and visitors to our fair city. So far we’ve shared hugs with people from (at least) 88 countries, and just yesterday we got to meet and share hugs with people from Australia, Canada, France, Mexico, Slovakia, U.S. and Venezuela! All of this within the space of an hour. It continues to amaze and delight us. We also had our first vehicle passenger hug for 2020, where a car pulls over, a passenger gets out, runs over for a hug, then dashes back to the car!

Many thanks for all of the smiles, waves, vehicle honks and special thanks to those who took a few moments out of their lives to share them with us. We offer but people have to come to us. We really appreciate it when you do!!

Hugs,
M&M

Hi Folks:

Yesterday we celebrated three anniversaries important to us, two of which are personal. On a larger scale, yesterday marked the 11th Anniversary of UN World Oceans Day! Our front door is about 300m from the ocean, and as such we’re aware of her various moods and cycles – at least on a small scale. While we subdivide and demarcate the world’s oceans, the truth is that there’s only one global ocean and that the ocean is the biggest single driver of the health of the planet. As the saying goes, “Love your Mother. Good planets are hard to find!”

Much closer to home, yesterday marked the the 17^th Anniversary of Marcia’s proposal. We say “Yes!!” to each other every day. 💗

And third, yesterday marked the 9^th Anniversary of our first Free Hugs session down at Victoria’s Inner Harbour. Our first session was chronicled here: Marcia’s Meanderings – Ladybugs and FREE HUGS! We both remember that day very well … first of all because we were absolutely terrified. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, and our very first Free Hug ever came from a little girl who saw our posters and came running over to us. That broke the ice for us, and who knows where we’d be without her courage and generosity?!?! We went out hugging again yesterday (our 11^th session of 2019 🙂 ) so we’re now officially into our 10^th year. When Adam Sawatsky and Wells Gaetz of CTV News VI did a profile on us last year they estimated we’ve shared hugs with 40,000 people. That number is beyond our comprehension, and even a quarter of that is staggering for us to consider. We do know two things: one is that we’ve shared hugs with Ambassadors from (at least) 84 countries; the second is that each hug is unique and special to us. For example, yesterday we shared hugs with Ambassadors from (to name a few) Brazil, Canada, Columbia, England, Germany, Iran, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico and the US within a two-hour period. We had the opportunity to celebrate one person’s 50^th birthday, and when one gentleman indicated he couldn’t understand our posters we gave him a demonstration by hugging each other – then shared hugs with him and his family! Over the years we’ve shared hugs with many different people, a number of dogs, two bearded dragons, a hitchhiking robot, a Storm Trooper, a velociraptor and a Frost Princess… so far! Kindness is a simple gift that we can all share with each other. It costs nothing and doubles with each sharing. Remember to hug someone you love today. Or a stranger. Or, preferably, both!!

Hugs,
M&M