Tag Archives: YYJ

Sharing Kindness for Mother’s Day

Posted on by — Leave a reply

Hi Folks:

As last Sunday was Mother’s Day, after a wonderful brunch with family we went out hugging (of course). It continues to amaze us that in one day we can meet and share hugs with people from as close as Victoria and as far as Australia, France, Iran, Italy and Uruguay (to name a few). We’ve already shared hugs with Ambassadors from 22 countries this year (at least 83 countries in total, so far) and we’re only just getting started! We also hugged our very first Frost Princess!! (She gives wonderfully warm hugs).

Continue Reading →

It’s Random Acts of Kindness Week!!

Posted on by — Leave a reply

Hi Folks:

Yesterday marked the beginning of Random Acts of Kindness week, so of course we went out hugging!! The credit for the saying goes to Anne Herbert, who in 1985 suggested committing “random kindness and senseless acts of beauty” in her book, “Compassion 101.” Since then the idea has taken on a life of its own, but it needs all of us to keep it alive! It need not be difficult or complicated. Kindness is always a good idea! However, if you’re looking for some ideas, be sure to check out the Random Acts of Kindness.org site and their sister site, PassitOn.com. Great stories and resources, including kindness kits for teachers, can also be found at the Ripple Kindness Project site.

Take the opportunity to be kind today! And tomorrow. And… you might just find it growing on you. As for our continuing hugging adventures, so far this year we’ve shared hugs with Ambassadors from 12 countries (this is our 10th year; so far we’ve hugged people from at least 82 countries in total) and yesterday we shared our first hugs with visitors from Canada’s Nunavut territory! They didn’t seem to mind the absence of -50°C temperatures. 🙂

Hugs,
M&M

Random Acts of Kindness Day

City of Angels

Posted on by — Leave a reply

Hi Folks:

On most evenings, around sunset, you’ll see groups of people gathered along the Dallas Road walkway that runs along the south shore of Victoria. Every sunrise and every sunset is unique, but sometimes the Earth just outdoes herself. This was January 24, 2019, at Holland Point.

Marcia’s image first. This is a composite of 10 cell phone images, joined up with Autopano Pro and pushed around a bit in Lightroom.

City of Angels 1

Mike recently received a new Sony A7RIII camera and has been playing with it a bit. Three images here, at different focal lengths:

City of Angels 2

57mm

City of Angels 3

24mm

City of Angels 4

12mm

Obviously, the sky and the ocean deserve most of the credit here. Okay, that’s it. Now go out and make some photographs!

Hugs,

M&M

Book Signing Magic!

Posted on by — 1 Comment ↓

Good afternoon!

Last Saturday the Rainbow Mouse family was at Coles, Tillicum Mall for a book signing event, and one of the first people to come to the table was a lovely woman who purchased a book and went to pay for it before having it autographed. When she returned, a young girl was standing at the table with her brother and her dad, who was about to buy the book for his daughter. The lady gifted the book to the girl, gave the receipt to the man and promptly walked away! Congratulations to Callysta for the magical arrival of her book, thanks to her dad for promising to pay it forward, and extra special thanks to the anonymous (and generous) donor! Whoever you are, dear woman … your act of kindness was truly precious!

Callysta and Marcia, Coles Tillicum, Nov 3, 2018

Callysta and Marcia, image © Coles, Tillicum Mall

The Rainbow Mouse family will be at Coles, Westshore Town Centre this Saturday (November 10) for another signing; come by to buy a book (which I’ll happily autograph), free stickers, free colouring pages, and free hugs! Who knows what magic we can conjure up together!

In Light and Laughter,
Marcia.

Three Seconds of Connection

Posted on by — Leave a reply

When we’re out hugging, that’s the very least you’ll get from us. We’ll look you in the eye, smile, wave and offer you a wish for a wonderful day. What happens next is entirely up to you. You can ignore and walk on by, smile and/or wave back, return our greeting… Or you can engage us and come in for a hug (or two). We really appreciate it when you do. ☺️

Hugs,
M&M

Marcia and Nathalie

Marcia and Nathalie

 

Sawatsky Sign-Off: Good News

Posted on by — 2 Comments ↓

Hi Folks: If you’ve read our posts you know that this is our 9th year of hugging tourists and locals down at Victoria’s inner harbour, and that so far we’ve hugged ambassadors from at least 77 countries. Outside of that, however, we lead pretty quiet lives … so we were both shocked and delighted to receive a phone call a week ago from Adam Sawatsky, who works with CTV News, Vancouver Island. At the end of their news broadcasts they feature short segments of good news and uplifting people, giving their viewers an opportunity to head into their evenings with a positive outlook. These segments are collectively known as the Sawatsky Sign-Off.

Continue Reading →

Names That Remain

Posted on by — 4 Comments ↓

Hi Folks:

So far this summer we’ve been keeping a pretty regular schedule going out hugging on Sunday afternoons. We’ve now hugged Ambassadors from 77 countries (that we know of); 55 countries this year alone! As we’ve mentioned, we’ve hugged people in sadness and we’ve hugged people in joy and everywhere in between. While we were out again yesterday, the previous Sunday (August 5) brought several things together for us.

The first was a blog post written by author Robert Fulghum, entitled “Names That Remain” (yes, we stole his title for this post). You can read it for yourself; we’ll wait. Continue Reading →

Nine Years of Hugging…

Posted on by — 4 Comments ↓

Hi Folks:

When we took our first foray down to Victoria’s Inner Harbour in June, 2010 to try sharing hugs with strangers, we had no idea where our adventure would lead us. We were terrified at first, but nine years later, we’re still going strong! In fact we’ve held more free hugs sessions this year than ever before! In 2017 we had 20 sessions; our first was on April 1 (it seemed appropriate) and our last was on December 12. So far this year we’ve held 14 sessions; our first was on March 10 and we’re planning to continue for as long as we can!

In 9 years we’ve shared hugs, stories, smiles, tears, high-fives, waves and so much more with thousands of people from 75 countries (of which we are aware). They are: Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, El Salvador, England, Eritrea, France, Germany, Guatemala, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kuwait, Libya, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Ireland, Republic of Korea, Republic of Suriname, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, US and Zimbabwe. We’ve hugged people from 52 of those countries so far this year, and we’re always adding new ones to our list!

With few exceptions, we’ve held all of our hugging sessions at the Homecoming Memorial on Wharf Street. It’s a good location for us, and the biggest indicator of time passing has been the growth of the little pine tree behind us. Our tree has been watching over us for a long time, even when it was too short to do so…

Nine Years of Hugging

Same hat, same jacket, same smile and no, the fence hasn’t shrunk any.

That’s it for now. Remember to hug someone you love today. Or a stranger. Or, preferably, both!

Hugs,
M&M

Free Hugs, 2018!!

Posted on by — Leave a reply

Hi Folks:

Last year we were feeling pretty avant garde in having our first Free Hugs session on April 1. We did our last 2017 session on December 10, completing 19 rounds of hugging! Well, Easter is on April 1 this year (which really has us wondering what the Easter Bunny is going to get up to this year, but that’s another topic). Anyway, last weekend was so warm and beautiful we did our first 2018 hugging session on March 10! Continue Reading →