An Ordinary Mom's Musings

My daughter and I went to the local farmer’s market. We were standing a very long line (everyone was following proper social distancing procedures), hoping to get strawberries. A young girl from my daughter’s school came around the corner and with squeals of glee they ran up to each other and hugged. I watched it all happen in slow motion and couldn’t stop it.

In a normal world it wouldn’t be a big deal.

But we don’t live in a ”normal” world anymore.

My daughter may have just exposed herself to COVID-19. But at the same time she fulfilled an innate human need to connect with someone. To touch someone and connect.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the gift of touch lately.

Years ago a friend was doing her clinical hours to become a therapist. She was in her early 20’s and lived alone. As a particularly hard session ended with a client, the client came up and hugged her. She related this experience later to me telling me how much that experience impacted her. She hadn’t touched anyone and no one had touched her in weeks. She started looking into research about the physical act of touching someone.

It turns out, touch is something we physically need. Babies and children need it to further their development. But that need doesn’t stop as an infant or a child. Adults need touch too.

As we are dealing with social distancing right now, many of us are not getting the amount of touch we need. How many people live alone? When was the last time someone touched you? I’ve noticed with my daughter that under the current circumstances of social distancing, that she needs even more touch than normal. I’m getting hugs from her everytime I turn around.

And I think we ALL need that right now.

We ALL need a hug right now.

At a time when people are dying due to a pandemic and we are social distancing to protect ourselves and others, how do we meet the emotional and mental health needs that we have?

Because people aren’t just dying from a pandemic. They are also dying from loneliness, depression, and suicide. The rates of these issues have soared since social distancing started.

If we can’t touch others right now, let’s make sure we are at least reaching out and checking in with them. Let’s be honest with ourselves and others about how we are doing right now. That maybe, we just need a hug from a good friend too.