Healing arms

The idea for this post came to my mind about two weeks ago I just hadn't had the time, or made the time I guess to write it. I suddenly woke up around 8:30am with Alex's screams coming from his room, still very much sleepy I looked at the monitor and could not see him...I panicked. I immediately jumped out of bed and ran to his room, I found him in the corner of his crib with one of his legs stuck between the crib rails and him fighting to get out. My heart went out to him hoping he hadn't been fighting for too long before I heard him. He didn't see me at first as he was trying hard to get out - I have one determined and persistent baby boy:) - but as soon as he saw me I simply saw both his arms stretched out to me...needless to say this melted my heart. I got his leg unstuck and finally held him in my arms...he was crying hard at first, but soon settled down and gave me a huge smile. I knew then that there was no safer place for him than my arms, a hug from me was healing to him. I have been thinking about hugs lately, in these and many other cases arms seem to have a genuine healing power. What is it about an embrace that can make everything right so quickly? I thought about a couple of things. First, an embrace is warm; you can literally feel the other person's warmth when you are hugging, physically and emotionally. Second, an embrace is letting the other person in, it is quite the vulnerable moment as you allow to open -literally- yourself to the other person, vulnerability is healing in an of itself. Third, the person being hugged is allowing herself/himself to be vulnerable and feels safe doing so; it has happened to me that when I feel safe when hugging I start crying more because I feel I can let go. And finally, a hug is a big message of love and care; I know no one who can say they don't like to feel loved, everyone does and a hug achieves that very effectively. So yes, here I was hugging Alex when I understood why he immediately reached out his arms when he saw me. It has become even clearer to me the power of my arms whenever Alex is close to me. Not only because he is comforted in my arms, but because I am comforted in his. I feel it all, his warmth, he lets me in, I feel vulnerable, and I feel his love. Yes arms have magic powers, arms communicate more than our words. Yes arms are healing. Thank you little one for reminding me of this.