I heard Mila before I saw her. The restaurant was empty a few minutes ago except for a handful of employees and me. But I heard Mila cry, so I knew there was a baby in the house.
I’d seen pictures of Mila before, but I’d never seen her in person. She was born almost 4 months ago to one of the managers here and I’d been wanting to meet her. Her father was called into work, so he had to drop her off with her mom while someone came to pick her up. In the 15 minutes she was here, I finally got to meet this little bundle of joy and love.
She’s a very serious baby and she seemed to be taking the entire world in with her huge brown eyes. She regarded me with intense curiosity. Then she eagerly took my finger in her tiny hand and squeezed it tightly as she gave me the only smile I saw from her.

Of all the world’s contradictions, our own actions confuse us most
Stop using children as pawns to promote adult political agendas
NTSB demands states ban all phone use for drivers, even hands-free
Police won’t do their job, but they’ll ticket you for doing it for them
Forgiveness has more power than political agenda in hateful tragedy
Jesse Jackson Jr. demands Obama hire 15 million unemployed Americans
We’re neither friends nor enemies, just strangers who share the past
Society needs storytellers to help make sense of a changing world
My bad teen poetry suggests I’ve always hungered for missing love