A Philosophy Made Huggable

In physics, cycles never repeat in perfect symmetry; they shift, decay, strengthen, or return with altered amplitude. Life does the same. Its periodicity isn’t mechanical but human. When the circumstances of life return us to an hour, it carries the memory of each time we’ve stood there before—only this time, wiser.

Welcome to A Bear for Every Hour—a universe shaped around the 12 hours of an analog clock that repeat like the seasons of a life. Each bear stands for one “hour”: Wonder, Grit, Self, Insight, Integrity, Heart, Calling, Belonging, Autonomy, Truth, Wisdom, and Stability. These hours mirror the arc of becoming, from how we learn, unlearn, break, re-build, and rise, again and again.

Life rarely moves in straight lines. It circles. It returns us to familiar hours with unfamiliar eyes. The same hour that feels unmoving one year may feel defining the next—and it always comes back when we’re ready for it.

Written by A-L.C.L. Wagenknecht and illustrated in the Philippines, the series’ roots took hold from real-world experiences; from gatekeeping, an absence of conventional mentors, self-taught breakthroughs, and a drive to use every obstacle as momentum for something profoundly better.

The hours form a rhythm. It becomes a clock you can return to whenever life resets, deepens, or begins again. Written with the belief that life is a series of recurring problems repackaged in different forms, the series is meant to be read over and over again, and in any order—choosing whichever hour matches the season you’re in.

With 110 books and counting, more hours continue to unfold as life teaches them. Each Teddy Bear holds a symbol, and every book carries the ethos, encapsulated as a Latin motto. The series grows as its author grows, with each new book arriving the way an hour does: right on time.