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Thanksgiving Hugs
- Catherine Bott
- Jan 21
- 5 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Today, Thanksgiving, marks 45 years of an extremely important, conscious change evolution for me, made manifest – hugging. For those of you naturally gifted huggers, go put the turkey in the oven, may your dressing be moist. Give thanks that hugging wasn’t the lifelong learning experience for you that it has been for me. Enjoy the day!
Every time I hug someone, I have earned a notch on my conscious change belt. Today I choose to focus my turkey day gratitude on my little brother for his effort and help in crossing over from being a cold fish to an extreme hugger. Still with me? Here’s the back story.
Familial dysfunction is part of my spirit DNA. My father’s mother passed when he was only eight years old. His father was a stone cold drunk. My father was left most of the time to fend for himself. When my mother was eleven years old her father left his wife, my maternal grandmother, for another woman whom he married and immediately moved 1800 miles south. So, in a way, you could say both of my parents were parentally abandoned, which may explain their early aged marriage; he nineteen and her seventeen years old.
Besides passing down their abandonment issues to me (a spiritually encoded DNA trait to spice up my life’s journey) their own emotionally charged issues prevented them from being able to physically nurture and caress their four children. Abandonment will do that to a person. Consequently, the part of me that responds to touch was never developed.
Touch, one of the five senses, the other four being taste, hearing, seeing and smell is said by psychologists to be a primal, basic need for all human beings. Anxiety, depression and immune system issues can often be attributed to touch deprivation not to mention loneliness and low self-esteem.
In high school, I peripherally belonged to a clique of girls that were always hugging. Not me however, I was vaguely aware that perhaps I was missing out on something but had no true mental and emotional awareness of what was going on. For sure however, I avoided any meetings or gatherings where hugs might have been exchanged like pajama parties, weekend trips, etc.
By twenty-seven years old, I had been married, divorced, had two children, one who had passed and was living on my own. There was a deadness in me I could not explain. One’s circumstances in life are little more than directional arrows that point to growth/enlightenment opportunities. One day in August my baby brother Paul, six years my junior and I were celebrating my birthday together and for the first time ever we discussed our “touchless” upbringing. He too complained about not being able to fully engage on the “touch” level with friends. Then and there, that very night, we made a mutual commitment to help each other develop our sense of touch and further that we would demonstrate our new found touching abilities to other touch-starved family members when we finally mastered the art of touching.
Don’t hear me complaining about my childhood. Au contraire. I am now amongst one of the world's greatest huggers. I know this because I have been told so by many people over the years. Between mid-August and Thanksgiving of that year, 45 years ago, Paul and I practiced hugging each other. DO NOT TAKE HUGGING FOR GRANTED! At first, we could only put our hand on each other’s shoulders. We would touch and look each other in the eye. It was soooo emotionally painful that we would have to stop for a while and return to “touch” position many times in one meeting.
Our progress was slow but eventually, meeting with purpose twice a week for thirteen weeks paid off.
I was the first one at our parents’ house that Thanksgiving when Paul came in the door and before everyone, we hugged. The silence was palpable. You could feel an intense energy from all our observers (twelve watchers) that to this day I still cannot describe.
Upon returning to our winter home this year I dropped in at the local postal center to collect our mail. When I walked in Linda came around the corner and gave me a giant bear hug. It felt so damn good to be able to hug her back. Without the conscious change elicited by Paul and culminated forty-five years ago I would have never been able to share in the “hug love” Linda threw my way. Her sweetness made me recall the journey my baby brother and I embarked on. Forever grateful for the hug journey.
This Turkey Day, when turkey tryptophan is having its way with you driving you into a state of drowsiness, think back to some conscious change you made that improved your life and give thanks to all those who stepped into your path with assistance. Many hugging angels stepped in where Paul left off. That’s how intentions work.
Thanks bro!
Affirmation: I am thankful now for all the people who have helped me to grow towards the Light.
(Originally Published 11/28/2024)
“I'm Catherine Wilcox, working to help others see that God is in all things, all the time, through conscious change and self-healing.”
If you have found this message enlightening, please send it to one friend. This action will help my vision of a more enlightened species to help usher in the new healing Age of Aquarius.
Catherine Wilcox is a Conscious Change Coach, Mentor, emotional intuitive and Writer. If you like what you read here, then you may enjoy one of her Published Books:
· God is in the Details 2.0 (COMING SOON)
· Sacred Space (COMING SOON)
· Sacred Relationship (COMING SOON)
**Catherine’s latest Book, The New Stone Age, Crystal Data for the 21st Century, contains ten chapters of information designed to help the novice and intermediate crystologist obtain the secrets to working with crystals to help the four mind-bodies balance chaotic energy.
· Mineral Speak, the Language of Minerals - (COMING SOON).
· Planet Speak: The Language of Planets – (COMING SOON)
· Cosmic Speak: The Language of the Cosmos – (COMING SOON)
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