No Hugs Allowed

Another week passes by and in Scotland, we are now able to meet up with one other household of up to 8 people in our own gardens or a park but still be socially distancing. Everyone I knew was excited by this, the weather this weekend was going to be a scorcher making getting together with others even better. As my friend lives close by it was a chance for us to see each other in person. She came over to the house, entering through our gate into the garden and sat on a seat, at an acceptable distance from me! Although we had several online nights in together, it was great to see her in the flesh! We had a good chat and catch up – despite the fact that neither of us (like everyone) have no news.

The sunshine was not only in the sky but also in our hearts too. This is what we had been waiting for, a little small glimpse of normality.

As part of the social distance rule, you are not allowed to go into another persons house. Therefore, your catch ups are restricted by how long you can go without peeing! 😂 We are trying to figure out, how we could have some alcoholic drinks in the garden one afternoon, but the problem with that is the peeing situation! So we’ll ‘can’ that idea for now!!

Another rule is you have to bring your own food, drink, utensils etc, so you can have a meal outside together. It is strange not being able to be the hostess and offer my friend something as simple as a drink, but she brought her own so we were all set. 😆

One noticeable difference, and something we take for granted is, we didn’t and obviously couldn’t hug! It’s an odd situation as it’s so normal and simple and shows you care. But our health has to be the priority so ‘no hugs allowed’!

Imagine living in a world where hugging wasn’t allowed. It was banned. You could hug your partner or those in your household but no one out of it. Now, if you were born into this, you wouldn’t see it as a problem or if you were not a hugger in the first place, then it probably wouldn’t affect you too much. But ‘my name’s Emma and I’m a hugger’! This is going to be tough!

Hugs can mean so many things, for example to be reassured or comforted, supporting a loved one in times of sadness, or to say ‘I love you’, or, if like me asking your husband to give you a squeezey hug to make my back crack!

Wouldn’t it be such a lonely place not being able to hug your family, wish them well and tell/show them you love them? For all of you who have family in care or in hospital, I can’t imagine what you are going through not holding their hand or embracing them to say you are there with them.

The first thing I do when I see my parents is outstretch my arms, goodness knows when I’ll be able to see them again in person, let alone hug them but the time will come. Similar with my sister. When I meet my friends, particularly if I’ve not seen them in a while, with excitement we almost run towards each other and hug! Hugging brings us home, to the familiar, we feel safe and secure and loved.

But for now, we need to ’embrace’ this new culture. Although it isn’t banned (we aren’t in a similar situation to the movie Footloose) and will never likely be, but having close contact with others is not unnatural. It’s normal practice to pull them into a bear hug and hold them!

Hugging is an expression of feelings, of love, care, warmth. To embrace someone, shows you are there for them, you are present. You don’t tend to hug someone you don’t like, unless the situation calls for it. I know I love hugs, but I certainly wouldn’t force it on others.

The usual practice when you haven’t seen someone for months, is to go forth and hug. So what can we do instead? Is there anything we can do? Have you come up with any non contact hug alternatives? A number of you are embracing ‘namaste’ whilst others are doing no contact high fives. Waving is always good, but really only works when someone is leaving 😆. But maybe, seeing that person in the flesh, is enough for the moment because when the time comes, it’ll be worth the wait.

Keep following your local and country rules to keep everyone safe and out of harms way. You are all doing a fantastic job.

May your week be filled with love and laughter and virtual hugs.

Take care, look after you and stay safe.

Love Emma xx 😍