meet mike

meet mike

Last week after a 2nd annual chocolate feast with friends at Max Brenner in NYC, we walked out to the packed Union Square.

***(Omigosh! Check this out. Just found it when Googling Union Square to find a link to post here. So cool; The Say Something Nice videos. LOVE this. The podium was in the same spot that Mike above was giving away free hugs. Talk about a few feet of land with some seriously good mojo! My favorite part of the video is around minute 2.5 when the little boy screams “To infinity and beyond!” with Buzz Lightyear in tow while being hoisted up by his mother, and the group of ladies after that singing together inspiring the random guy walking behind them to clap along. This video gives me about 54 ideas for BLR projects I’d like to create, and reminds me why I fight to keep up with posting here every day; In a world that often seems crazy, sad, too busy for fun, stressed out, and unconscious- I continue to find a plethora of happy, inspiring and hopeful people, places and things like these that totally energize and motivate me to want to do more good.)

Ok, now back to Mike and free hugs…

Stuffed from our chocolate chunks pizza:

(Double chocolate melting chunks, with hazelnut bits, bananas, peanut butter and roasted marshmallows. Can you imagine the smile on my face? It makes me all giddy just typing those indulgent words!)

…we planned to walk our feast off for a while, but just a few steps in is where we ran into the Free Hugs crew. Just like we indulged in chocolate, we felt compelled to indulge in a hug too. My friend embracing away:

…and me too:

…plus photo of course!

Is it weird hugging a random hippie kid stranger who’s been on the streets of New York touching hundreds of people and sweating all day? Nah. I say life is short. When your feeling it- live in the moment. Hug hard and mean it.

I totally bought a t-shirt from Mike too. I never do that. I mean ever, but in that moment I felt the need for my very own “Free Hugs” tee. The money supposedly goes to a bunch of nonprofits the huggers raise money for. Who know where my 10 bucks will actually end up and who cares. All I know is I intend to have lots of fun wearing that shirt for years to come.

Thanks for the hug Mike!

Here’s to hugging it out and saying something nice too.