Concentration

There is this little girl who has been disturbing our Core Group meetings for the past six months or so and I want to just say a few words about babies in general and how they distract and confuse and beguile us.

Meet Angel. She is Nirmala's adorable daughter and since she returned with her mom after the maternity leave she organized for her, she's been a regular at our weekly CG meetings. I've never seen anything like it. We all start out serious and purposeful, notebooks in hand and agenda fixed firmly in our minds.

Angel sits across the table in Nirmala's lap and grins at whoever is speaking. That person falters a little, loses the thread, tries bravely to get back to the point but then gives in - you cannot resist. You HAVE to smile back.


Finally, it gets to the point where you can't go on with life until you actually have her in your arms.


And then the now-ness of a baby takes over. The agenda becomes meaningless. The minutes? Later! All that matters is that smile and we will all do anything to get one.