Starhug Inspiration

 

Starhug is about connecting, supporting and healing each other during tough times. It is a story to plant a seed for children and hopefully will resonate with  any inner child.

Starhug is inspired by our family's emotional struggle of the loss of my Mom. Mom was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer January 2018 and passed two months later. Our children, who were still quite young at the time would ask, "Where did Grandma go?".  We would say she is up in the stars. A few months later we flew a night flight to Sitka, Alaska and on the plane the kids asked, "We are in the sky now and see stars, why can't we see Grandma?". It was a tough question to answer, I'm not even sure if I did. 

We had a wonderful trip and for the first time, we saw a sea star on the beach. For us, though we had seen sea stars at the aquarium, it felt special to see a sea star in nature.

I've always been an avid reader and have always wanted to write a novel or children's book. Something about those two events must have stuck in my mind because in 2021, the thought of a story with a star and sea star came into my mind. I couldn't piece the story together, then a few months later the story came to me to in a dream. I woke up and wrote the entire manuscript for Starhug in bed on my phone.

You might be getting an idea by now that I am a hugger, and though we may not be able to hug as much these days, a message, phone call or virtual hug can still show we are connected, we appreciate, or we care. So I am sending you a big virtual hug to thank you for reading my story. I hope you will continue the Starhug journey with me by sharing the message and the connection of a hug with others.

Hugs, Cindy! x