cuddles for sale?

Oh my! I am very excited. Tomorrow I'm ensconced in a waterpark and was going to start thinking about Christmas properly, but instead am seriously thinking I might work on a business plan instead.

For as long as I can remember when people asked what I wanted to do for a living I said "hug people". Well, it seems a woman in America didn't get put off by people's dismal of this aim as idealism and has set up a shop where she charges people to have an hour of cuddling.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/woman-opens-professional-cuddling-shop-gets-10000-customers-in-first-week-9870211.html

If I decided I really wanted to do this, I could do it you know.
So do I want to?

Already lots of questions jump up. I already know the challenge of work/life balance. If I'd been cuddling people all day would I be less keen to cuddle my family and friends? How on earth could I charge people for it - could I put together a health case and write a proposal for funding and say get referrals through the NHS so people didn't have to pay? Practical issues of safety, of covering rent, all that would need addressing. How might others react - particularly I'm thinking a partner of a client might have feelings if they had come to me for a cuddle service. Of course, one of the fab things about cuddles is you can't give one without getting one - my health benefits would be enormous :D

So, what do I want to do with my one wild and wonderful life - is this part of my calling I could professionalise??? We shall see (meanwhile lower your expectations now of recieving a Christmas card...)

...
More questions. If one of the most important things to me is relationship building, does a one off fixing approach work or should I be looking at how to build touch into relationship building - but just how would I make this into a job rather than my life already? Could I not create a cuddle corner as part of a community setting - maybe our envisioned new church space - but how on earth could this fit with safeguarding practice? If I couldn't offer cuddles to vulnerable adults and under 18s does it become exclusionary? And I've been asked about the validity - that the value of cuddles is in the knowing the person wants to give the cuddle  - "you are cuddleable" rather than is doing it because it's their job. Still reflecting :)