Some people leave. Some people return. Families reunite after months apart. Friends meet up for a few days. Conversations linger because there’s no rush. Silences also find rest.

And in the midst of this slower, sunnier, more suspended month, the 8th arrives once again.

At TOTEM, we celebrate it with #8Hugs.

Not as a pretty slogan. As a simple reminder of something we forget when everything moves too fast: we need contact, presence, pause, physical connection, eye contact.

A hug doesn’t fix the world. But sometimes it brings order to something within.

It doesn’t resolve a loss, it doesn’t bridge a distance, it doesn’t answer all the pending messages. But it can say, without words, something that many words cannot: I’m here, I see you, I’m with you.

August invites us to do just that. To hug those who are near. To call those who are far away. To not leave until September what we can nurture today. Remember that we can also return to the essentials in the simplest way: two open arms for a few seconds.

Every 8, eight hugs.

Or at least one real hug.