My family raves about my hugs. My daughter’s friends crave my hugs. I hope by July, my whole, giant family can safely resume sharing long embraces instead of reminiscing about them over videochat. When my mother-in-law and I, both fully vaxed against COVID, finally got to wrap our arms around each other again, I put my whole heart into it. Tears pricked my eyes. I felt muscles relax that I hadn’t even known were tense; a really good hug does that.
Pressing pause feels unnatural. To step back from our constant forward plunge, we need permission (a vacation, parental leave). Even for planned and pleasant pauses, over 50% of Americans who have the benefit don’t take all the paid leave our jobs provide. And we maintain our work umbilical cord via our phones and laptops. Going off the grid is so radical we proclaim it like a call to revolution. Inertia carries us forward as if a change in velocity or trajectory
Throughout a childhood spent in a feisty, fiery family swayed by uncertainty about everything that mattered, the emotional flak of routine tantrums, severed relationships, and worshipful clinging to people or ideas struck at random. Friends insist the story of that part of my life would make a good book. They say I’ve turned out so much better than my circumstances predicted.