Curate, connect, and discover
have a random need and urge to expand on the difference (in loving terms) between being hugged and being held.
like, to be hugged is a mutual sort of 'I love you', a small or big gesture that implicates a need to be close or have some form of physical contact. it can have different levels of love, whether it's a thing you do with your friends or something that you do with a person you love deeply and romantically, it can mean a lot of things.
for some people, it's a simple gesture that can happen in everyday life, and you don't even think about it.
for others, it's a huge thing, something that you only do with people you really mean it with. it's something that eases you and makes you feel good, like kisses (which I might have to get into another time lol)
but being held is a very different thing, and I've been thinking about it quite a lot recently.
to be held can be a one sided thing, unlike hugs, which are normally two sided, and it's can come off as more than a need for physical contact, it's a need to be loved.
being held is, in my view, also a lot more romantic, or at the very least something you only do with someone you trust a hell of a lot. it's more of a 'letting someone else take care of you' sort of thing, where you've gone back to basic needs and you just need to know you're loved. to hold someone is to protect them or comfort them, less of a simple loving gesture, more of a I've got you.
don't get me wrong, it is one hundred percent something you'd do with someone you love, but if you hold someone it can be a way of showing you love them, less of just showing each other love. like, something that you use to comfort someone and reasurre them that they are loved, something that you might know about yourself, but maybe they're not so sure, which is a whole other page of shit to explain, but yeah.
just, interesting, I think. small gestures that can mean so much to some people, and nothing to others.