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From the New York Times and WBUR Boston, this is Modern Love.

Stories of Love, loss and redemption.

I'm your host, Megna Chacrabardi.

For some people, New Year's resolutions are all about going to the gym, saving money, decluttering.

That's not Christine Lloyd.

I looked for the really bizarre.

I thought, you know, I'm not just going to do little bitty, fearful things.

Let's just go off the deep end here.

Christine wrote about her resolution in her essay, In the New Year, More Cuddling.

It's read by Margarita Loviva, who plays Abby in the HBO show The Duce.

Attending a cuddle party was one of my fear conquering New Year's resolutions for 2016.

My other resolutions, I had a long list.

Included speed dating and taking a hike with a mountaineering club.

I never got around to speed dating or hiking.

But by August, I had worked up the courage to sign up for a cuddle party.

And that's how I found myself lying in a foam pad in a stranger's floor with my head on the shoulder of a strange man.

Strange in that, I didn't know him, of course, but also strange in that he was so thin and bony that cuddling with him was no comfort at all.

Soon a young woman settled in on his other side and asked if she could hold my hand.

Okay, I said feebly.

We reached out in clasped hands across the man's chest.

I felt rigid, tense, terrified.

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