Sunday, November 15, 2009

THE PAPER CLIP HUG

Georgia, a friend of my wife's, was recently divorced and trying to raise her two sons when the Gulf War broke out. She heard about soldiers in the service who had no family and needed pen pals. Letters addressed to "Any Soldier" were distributed by commanding officers who noticed any soldiers getting little or no mail. Georgia wrote to 25 such soldiers almost daily, most of them men.

Keeping up with 25 pen pals on a daily basis almost consumed Georgia's time and talents. She sent poems, little stories, and words of hope and encouragement. When there were time constraints, she would write one letter and copy it for everyone. Greetings were sent whenever she knew about a special event, like a birthday.

One day, Georgia received a letter from a soldier that was depressed and discouraged. She pondered as to how she could help lift his spirits. It was then that she noticed that at work there were paper clips of various colors. Georgia took one of the yellow paper clips and photo copied it in the palm of her hand. She sent this picture with the paper clip with the following message: "This yellow paper clip that you see in my hand represents a hug that I am sending to you. You can carry this paper clip in a pocket or anywhere, and whenever you feel down, you can just touch and hold it and know that somebody cares about you, and would give you a hug if she were there." Georgia sent a copy of this picture along with a paper clip and the message to each of her other correspondents. After the war ended, Georgia received one of the pictures of her hand holding the yellow paper clip, and on the back were over 150 signatures of people that had been given her "hug."

During the years, Georgia named other paper clips. Pink came to mean a kiss, green was for good luck, and so on. Years later, Georgia was giving a class as part of a seminar for positive thinking. She shared with the members of the class her paper clip symbolism, and made a bracelet of multicolored paper clips for each of them. One of the women exclaimed, "So you're the one!" The class member told Georgia that she was visiting her brother and needed something to hold papers together. She had noticed a yellow paper clip on the refrigerator held there with a magnet. She borrowed the paper clip for her papers. When the brother saw it, he grabbed it and scolded her, and told her never to touch the yellow paper clip again. Now she knew why.

No one will never know how far her message has spread, nor how many lives have been touched by a simple yellow paper clip.

-Author Unknown-

6 comments:

mamasita said...

Thanks Paula..again a very beautiful, touching, heart tugging piece of entry.
This lady really knew how to be of good service to strangers without having to be physically there..marvellous idea.

I am sure she was sad for her divorce..yet she made so many others happy..so positive minded kan..

michelle's blue planet said...

I like to read yr blog and indeed hv forwarded many of yr snippets which are so uplifting.
This paper clip hug is such a nice example.
I note tho that many of yr. posts carry the little sign off "author unknown"
It would be so nice to know where the articles originate from because its so much nicer to be able to visualize the original authors or at least the links where they come from ;-)

P/S : I always forward yr. postings with credit and links back to yr. blog

Unknown said...

Dear Datin Mamasita

Thanks so much for your very heartfelt comment. The two of us will surely be crying on each other's shoulders if ever we watched a sad movie together...

Positivism is definitely they key to successful living and you and your husband are the best examples!!

Take care and have a good day!

Warmest wishes
Paula

Unknown said...

Hi Michelle

Thanks so much for your kind comments. That is the reason why I post these articles - to inspire and to uplift readers. I write at my other blog masterwordsmith-unplugged.

Often times, I do not know who wrote the post cos sometimes I get these in emails and other times in other websites which do not acknowledge or do not know the authors.

Sometimes, blog readers like Walt will alert me.

I share the same view with you - it is nice to know who is the writer to know where they are coming from. I do acknowledge when I am aware of the writer's identity.

Thanks for forwarding the articles and for linking back to my blog.

I also like your writings and used to snorkel etc but not any more due to an injury.

Take care and God bless you.

Bet wishes
mws

Chahya said...

Positivism always attracts.

:)
*HUGS*

Unknown said...

Hi Chahya

Indeed you are spot on my dear Chahya.

Take care and do keep in touch!

Salam and pelukan