Book Giveaway and Excerpt: A Different Kind of Vow

Dear KOM-ers!

We’re so happy to feature a new book giveaway!

Please enjoy this excerpt from “A Different Kind of Vow” by Laurie Collister.

There are 2 ways to enter to win a FREE copy:

Leave a comment below with your email address (so we can contact you)
Email us at KOMWriting@gmail.com with the Subject: A Different Kind of Vow giveaway entry

The winner will be randomly selected on 3/30 and announced on our website and social media. *

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From the ashes of a devastating fire, Laurie Collister was able to salvage her diaries; 50+ years and 300 notebooks of reflection and memories that somehow survived. At a low point in Laurie’s life, she begins to reread every diary only to discover the clues to how to build the life she truly wants and how to let go of the idea of “happily ever after” even at middle age.

Laurie’s book shares the misadventures of her life in love, her career and even in her faith. From romantic duds to possible husbands to joining a psychic school to finding peace at an ashram, Laurie’s fearless approach to life and her consistent journaling practice allowed her to map out her life experiences that eventually led to her work as a career counselor on L.A. ‘s Skid Row. Readers will love the eccentric stories from Laurie’s life, but also relate to her frustrations on its slow progress and finally see that sometimes to move forward in life, you must look back. She experiences, for the first time, an intense rightness—a sense that this is how her life is meant to be.

Excerpt: Chapter #39 – Hugging Saint

“I read that the Hugging Saint is coming to town,” my best friend Neville said. “Let me grab the article from my car.”

A few minutes later, as I sipped a margarita, I skimmed the story. Amma, or “mother,” was a powerful Indian guru who had hugged more than ten million people “to spread selfless love and compassion towards all beings.” During her upcoming North American tour, she planned to stop in LA, where she would conduct a fifteen-hour hugging session. Followers said she performed miracles. She diverted storms. She turned water into pudding. But the miracle that most interested me was her purported ability “to erase all worries and transmit unconditional love with a single hug.”

Ever since I’d broken up with Mel, I’d harbored a crimp in my heart. Yes, living with Peter had helped. So had prayer, meditation, and journaling. But none of these balms totally quelled the niggling pain. If my heart was bigger, I surmised, I would have loved Mel in spite of his issues. Turning down his marriage proposal had called into question my capacity to love. Worse still, maybe Mel had been my last chance at marriage, and I’d thrown it all away.

I knew I needed help defining my calling. But maybe, right now, what I needed more was the unconditional love of a saint.

When I arrived at the Westin Hotel in Van Nuys, an attendant gave me a token with a number on it. “R-37” didn’t sound promising. And it wasn’t. A disciple, dressed in a loose white tunic and pants, told me it meant a six-hour wait, well past midnight. As a reserved Midwesterner, I had resisted the Southern California custom of greeting almost everyone with a hug. I smiled at the irony of waiting hours in a fluorescently lit ballroom for the chance to hug a stranger.

At 2 a.m., the “R’s” were instructed to get in line. We had to remove our shoes and store our belongings in a bin before we inched on our knees closer to Amma, who sat perched on a red velvet throne on a stage. I asked the attendant how Amma could maintain this pace, hugging people all night long without a break, meal, or even a trip to the restroom.

“She is connected to the eternal energy source,” the attendant said with a half-smile. “She’s not a battery that gets used up.”

One by one, people dropped at Amma’s feet and let her cradle them. In a span of five minutes, she dried the tears of a crying baby, assigned a mantra to a security guard, and blessed a couple about to marry.

All of a sudden, I was next. Amma pressed my face to her bosom and whispered in my ear – something that sounded like mamamamama in her native Hindi. Her grip was surprisingly firm considering I was probably her thousandth hug of the night. After about eight seconds, with a final squeeze, she released me and pressed a Hershey kiss and rose petal in my palm. An attendant steadied me as I hopped off the stage.

I stumbled to a chair nearby. I was light-headed and elated, similar to how I had felt when I ventured into certain pockets of the convent, where only the nuns worked. Now I had piggybacked off Amma’s divine connection just as I had with the monastics at the convent.

I climbed into bed, exhausted. As I lay there, I realized the tiny grip in my heart was gone. I grabbed my diary to commemorate the momentous occasion.

A short hug dispelled my anxiety about my broken engagement
to Mel. It’s almost as if Amma inserted herself in my thoughts to
tell me, “Your track record of broken romances does not define
you as unloving or unlovable.” Suddenly, I realized every second,
every person, every animal, every situation, presents an opportunity
to give and receive love. Romance is one venue, to be sure, but by
no means the only one. This woman, born in a low caste in southern
India, has, indeed, performed a miracle. And far more significant
than turning water into pudding! She’s taught me, without saying a
word, that I am a loving person.