Please go see this very important new blog entry at the Hugs Heal Blog, Hugging: A Crime Most Heinous

Also, please make sure you subscribe to the Hugs Heal Blog for updates on this and other subjects and digg the article to raise awareness of the rules that are banning children from showing affection!

I find myself inspired once again by an email from a friend. So here is the challenge.

Ask your children (or a relative or friend's child) the following question. "What is love?" I promise you, the answer will either hilarious, incredibly sweet, or undeniably wise. Or possibly a combination of all three.

Please tell me the child first name, age, and their answer.

Hello, my wonderful friends! Today I am issuing you a new challenge. It will cost you nothing but your time (unless you choose otherwise) and I guarantee it will make you feel wonderful.

The day after you read this blog entry, I challenge you to do 3 kind things for someone other than yourself. I can be 3 acts of kindess for one person or one act for 3 different people.

These acts can be anything you choose. As long as you dont stay in bed all day, I guarantee you that plenty of opportunites will arise. You just need to pay attention.

Here are some ideas:

1. Give a gift card to a homeless person (or anyone who needs it)

2. Give a hug to someone who looks sad

3. Help someone carry their groceries out to their car

4. Take a friend out to their favorite restaurant

5. Tip your babysitter or pizza delivery person twice as much as you normally would

6. Take your spouse to the local park and have some ice cream together (or hot chocolate, depending on the weather)

Don't forget to come back here and tell me what you decided to do for your three acts of kindness, or post some of your ideas for other people to do. I'll choose some of my favorites to be featured in my blog!

The new Hugs Heal Shop is open!

Help spread the message that Hugs Heal by using or wearing an item bearing the Hugs Heal logo!

A portion of the proceeds from these sales will go toward starting a Hugs Heal online community and organizing activities for Hugs Heal including things like visits to hospitals and passing out sandwiches to the homeless. Please help by purchasing something and passing along the word about Hugs Heal!

Below are just a few of the many designs in the shop.

Have you ever noticed that most of best, worst, most important moments of your life include a hug?

I was 17 years old and the date was March 31, 2005; the day my dad died suddenly of a heart attack. An odd start to a "best hug" story, huh?

There are a lot of things about that day that I don't remember. But I do remember the moment when I finally broke down, the initial shock suddenly wore off and I started to cry, wail, and ultimately collaspe on my living room floor. And I remember my best friend, Sarah, hugging me. She threw her arms around me and when my knees hit the floor, she went down with me. She never let go.

It was certainly not a happy moment; in fact, it was the saddest moment of my life, but it was and still is the best, most important hug I can ever remember recieving.

Tell me about your best or most important hug memory and I may choose it to be posted on my blog to be shared with the world!

I have just read yet another article about students getting in trouble for hugging. Personally, I find these "Hug Bans" at school absolutely ridiculous, unnecessary, and potentially harmful to America's youth. Please Click Here to read the article and get a better idea what these rules are about. 

Every time I hear about a student being punished for giving their friend a hug, my chest constricts, my face turns red, my hands clench, and let's just say that no one should be asking me any favors. Hugging is such an important part of our lives, and it is especially important to children and teenagers.

These are the years when emotions are already in such turmoil; how can we deny these children the simple and wonderful comfort of a hug? And if our youth grow up not experiencing the incredible power of hugs, how can we expect them to understand how important they are? How much will this effect these children? How will it effect how they treat they kids and grandkids? This is our future we're talking about. Are we headed down a very slippery slope toward an world where freely-given affection will be socially unacceptable?

These bans may seem insignificant to some, but if they are allowed to continue, I believe that they will spread and evolve into stricter and stricter rules banning many expressions of affection. Just how many acts of warmth and friendliness are we willing to allow our children to miss out on?

How can we expect our children to become kind people in adulthood if we punish them for acts of kindness in adolescence?

For continued updates on this issue and everything else to do with hugs, please visit and subscribe to my blog. Click below to go now! And please help raise awareness for this issue by telling your friends to visit, too! 

After my last blog entry regarding the school rules prohibiting hugs, I was shocked by the response I had.  I've received many comments and messages from people who are totally outraged by these bans. I wasn't surprised that people were against these rules, but that so many seemed not to have even known about them before reading my blog was a bit of a shock. These are people who could and should be having an input and affect on these rules that affect our children.

Now I need your help. We must raise awareness of these rules and the changes needed in our schools. Please subscribe to my blog, link to it if you can, and tell your friends about it in order to help me keep everyone updated on these issues and MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE COMMENTS! By contributing your opinion on these matters, you will be helping bring us a step closer to making sure that our children do not grow up in schools where acts of kindness and affection are marked as improper or dirty.