I've long come to realize that cuddling is an essential part of life, and more recently, I've come to find out how cuddling works in a sort of medicinal quality to Pie~ With me being away from Pie more often than ever as I spend time with Brie and Kat, I've found that these times bring on a heightened importance as a way to re-connect, especially because I want Pie to feel that love and recharge for the times that I am away. It's...a kind of bittersweet aspect of polyamory; to feel love with others but then also feel like you may not be providing enough loving focus to any one partner. It does create more of an focus on really appreciating and making the most of the time that we do have, and in that way it feels like there is less taking a partner for granted or getting complacent in always earning and expressing that love. Again, it's bittersweet.

Some of my favorite moments in my relationship with Pie are just like this comic… just getting into that perfect spot, the majority of the surface area of our bodies touching and just taking a nap midday while falling asleep to some Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun (my favorite feel good show to relax to, also bonus points if it's overcast or rainy). To just curl up in a sort of fetal position and really appreciating that human necessity of being intimate with a person you love. Even after thirteen years of being with Pie, it will never be lost on me just how safe and loving creating that cocoon of tenderness is.

Of course, Pie is not alone in the healing properties since a really good cuddle can really get the oxytocin flowing. In Los Angeles at the LGBT center, they had this once group workshop, of sorts, that involved consensual cuddling with participating group members and I suppose cuddling parties have been picking up steam as well. I think it's a really interesting concept of being able to learn how to communicate with stranger how how they want and need to be held, to respect boundaries and keep things platonic. To just capture that feeling for those who can't get that need fulfilled from home and reconnect with people on a more intimate level which I think is a bit lost in our modern, less tribal, culture.