Yesterday was the International hugging day, and you might say I overlooked it, and didn’t do my job, but you’d be wrong!

I didn’t mention it because of two excellent reasons.

• I was working all day, and had a Danish class with Lucas after. And when I came back home in the evening, I didn’t have much time to spend on inviting people to be nice again, and it felt a little pointless at that time, with the few hours left. And people together at that time a day, probably being in a close enough relationship that they would hug without my help anyway.

• A lot of people had spread the word, and that means I am officially off “International day” duties. I try my best to give exposure to less popular days. That is my mission!

But it doesn’t mean I didn’t participate… Loin de là!

It so happens that on my way home, in the subway station, there was a group of women giving free hugs. My very first thought was “That is SO not Danish” and I tried to imagine the reaction of most Danes, especially in Copenhagen, if I stood on the corner of the street, arms wide open, asking people to hug me… I don’t think it would have much success.

But we aren’t in Denmark (Dang!) and for some reason, I was drawn to the arms reaching for some free affection. I had seen so many YouTube videos of people doing such things. Back then, I had thought it was a nice idea, and that I would be part of the hugging comer-by if it ever happened to me.

I walked to a woman with a pink coat first, and she took me in her arms… She seemed so happy to spread love around that I felt warm-hearted immediately. We smiled to each other, and I turned around to take back my walking towards the subway. But there were a bunch of other women reaching, and a lot of passers didn’t even look at them. So I thought “what the hell?” and I gave a second hug to a fifty-something blonde. And off I was yet again, thinking I had done my share… But there was one last woman and being at the end of the line, most people were out of hugs to give when they walked by her… I felt bad. So I hugged her too, and she was particularly jolly about it, probably because of all the huggless people that had denied her the right to share her love with strangers. She wished me a great evening, and I finally left to catch my coach.

Sitting in the subway, I thought about those three hugs… It didn’t feel all that random suddenly. There were 3 people I really would have liked to hug. Three very special real-deal people I would have loved to take in my arms, just to say “I really like you” without words, for once. Isn’t life funny sometimes? Yeah, it is indeed….

I hope you had a pretty neat International hugging day too!