Creative Response

Done with the Facilitation training and am on my way to getting certified as a Cuddle Party Facilitator. This too seems to be like quite a lot of work.

I get questions as to how I got into this Cuddle Party business to begin with. To put it shortly, I heard Reid Mihalsko, one of the founders of Cuddle Party, giving interview on Just for Women and what he said about the assumptions our society has about men and women resonated with me. Our culture has this strange idea that aduls cannot control their sexual drives and that touch is only possible in the context of family or romantic relationships which as I know from my own experience is absolutely not true. The whole idea of a Cuddle Party as a place for strangers (and non-strangers) to meet to get their cuddlying needs satisfied did strike me as rather bizarr at the beginning. Would someone really want to come and join a bunch of strangers and be so open that they would be willing to hug them and be hugged? How is it possible to create a safe space for this kind of event? I had lots of questions but I also knew that we need to start somewhere and that I definately wanted to get a first hand experience before coming to conclusions. So I went to the Cuddle Party in Copenhagen and was both inspired and moved by the openness we as a group created in just a couple of hours. I would most likely not see those people again but I carried the warmth of that meeting with me for a long time and I definately felt energised and appreciated for who I was. I also knew I would want to experience this again so I had to make sure we would have Cuddle Party closer to home and this is how it started.

Millions and millions of years would still not give me half enough time to describe that tiny instant of all eternity when you put your arms around me and I put my arms around you.

- Jacques Prévert