FREE HUGS IN CHELTENHAM

Sam (far left) and Tin (second from right) with beautiful French students

Today, my son Sam and Jan Akkerman's nemesis, our most dear friend Tin, went to Cheltenham to offer some free hugs!


As Secretary of our village's Parochial Church Council, I felt it was my duty to report this activity (done on behalf of God, who couldn't be there in person, and who asked us to represent him by proxy), at our meeting tonight.  I am uncertain as to whether it will be minuted or not.  


In fact, the reason I told the Council was that I had been extremely moved by our vicar's monthly letter in our parish magazine.


In concluding his letter, Reverend Woodger wrote:


"... if we want to find God, we do not have to look far; he is all around us, in everything, but never closer than in the people he has given us to love."


Gorgeous, huh?

See the slideshow, set to Michael Jackson's beautiful "Heal the World", that Sam made this evening.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALdKai797E0

We hope you enjoy it, and that it might inspire you to do the same!

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS

The 'Free Hugs' movement was inspired by the desire of Juan Mann (pseudonym understood by saying it aloud!) to bring love to his brothers and sisters by performing 'random acts of kindness'.  His own loneliness at the time brought an empathetic wish to ease the possible loneliness of others.


Interestingly, when I first spotted the chaps offering free hugs in Trafalgar Square in London, I felt a little bit hesitant. All my trust and intimacy issues raised their wary heads.  What, a hug from a STRANGER?  I'm not too sure ....

It is possible that this dear man was feeling the same.  But he went ahead and did it anyway.  And so did this one.

The chap in the background looks a bit bemused by the whole thing!  But the word RANDOM speaks volumes, I think.  It implies that kindness is being offered totally unconditionally.  No conditions whatsoever.  That certainly made me consider this: am I kind only when it is easy?  Do my conditioned ideas about justice and morality make me hold back sometimes?


Here is a link to a video about random acts of kindness.

  http://humanityhealing.net/2009/05/random-acts-of-kindness/

I hope you enjoy it.  Oh, and here is a quote from the Dalai Lama's Twitter:


"The aim of spiritual practice is to become the friend of all beings, concerned about them and ready and able to help them."


@DalaiLama


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FREE HUGS UPDATE!

Since posting my first blog, I have discovered to my joy and amazement that this Free Hugs thing is a worldwide phenomenon.   Do take the time to look at these truly amazing videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGYO86KwCUc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRyA3CXIk4Y

A revolution of the heart!  A seachange for humanity that makes the heart sing!


Do forward this to everyone and anyone you can think of!  Oh, and here's another one!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7xufj_quentin-mosimann-il-y-a-je-taime-et_music

Enjoy!

"I must tell my mum about these free hugs."

Free Hugs

Hugs, dispensed free to the crowds milling and wandering in Trafalgar Square on a busy Saturday in May!  I still cannot stop smiling.  Intimacy and trust, free!  Full body embrace from a total stranger, free!  Just gorgeous.   Bearing in mind that physical touch, and the very act of smiling, produce 'feel-good' chemicals in our bodies (endorphins, I think), I do believe those beautiful men were administering really good medicine!   I am still humming and I am overjoyed that I had my camera with me.  What a sublime message for a humanity searching for meaning.  One really does not have to embrace any particular creed or dogma to see that the message of unity can come in the simplest ways.   

                  

                  

                                            
                                               

                  

And here are some pictures to prove that love is contagious.

Never under-estimate the power of love!  It is not an emotion - it's power, and as Teilhard de Chardin said, 

"Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire."