They say the best things in life are free. One of those things, I believe, is a hug. Here’s why.

[Letter from a father to his daughter]

Dear One,

From the day you were born, I have so loved the act of giving you a hug.

In your early days, I would hold your tiny form next to my heart. I would chant to you when you would cry, and it would always calm you down. Our hearts would start beating as one, and it felt so good holding the whole universe in my hands.

Later, as a little girl, you would come to the airport to bring me home from my travels. As soon as you spotted me at a distance, you would pull away from your mother’s grasp to dash forward, oblivious of the security officials and the travelers streaming by, to approach me and leap into my outstretched arms. I would twirl you around and then hold you, kiss your cheek, and bask in your bubbly spirit. 

You are a young lady now. Our hugs may be more grounded, but they still make me soar.

Sometimes I ask myself why our hug means so much to me.

Perhaps it is because this is how your grandpa and grandma were with me as I grew up. They were both, as you too have witnessed, hugs-millionaires.

Perhaps it is a way for me to convey the depth of something that words simply aren’t designed for, like “You are adored.”

Perhaps it is me abandoning all of life’s cares to soak in the pure feeling of our father-daughter connection.

Our hug is all of this, and one thing more.

I marvel at how there was this phase of your mom’s and my life where you were not even in existence, not at all on our mind. Then one day you show up as a baby, and now here we are, feeling this inseverable connection with you.

A connection that could not have just started in this life. We must have known you in times past and played with you in sacred gardens from another hemisphere, for otherwise how did you walk so comfortably into my heart and know exactly where to find your place in it?

It is a connection that does not have to end with this life. There will be a day when you and I will wish each other “Godspeed” as one of us exits the stage of life. But it is that period of separation that will be temporary, for our connection is eternal. If we choose to make it so.

And that, in truth, is why I hug you every time we meet.

Each hug is a silent training for my soul, so I may remember you a bit more vividly after every death-ushered separation, and I may recognize you a bit more intuitively at every birth-ushered reunion, just like I did in this life. That way, we can keep twirling together in the dance of life and death until, giddy with joy, our spirits finally merge back into the Creative Force from where we first emerged.

Your papa

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Who should you be giving a hug to, in the days ahead, to silently train your soul?

“When I come home, my daughter will run to the door and give me a big hug, and everything that’s happened that day just melts away.” – Hugh Jackman

Warmly,
Hitendra

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