I wasn't the kind of mom who could tell a hungry cry from a tired one, who magically intuited my infant's needs. I was anxious and bumbling. Compulsively feeling his forehead for fever. Joining him in crying jags. Nicking his fingers while trimming his nails. One morning, when he was five months old, I woke with a stomachache. While I nursed him, the baby placed his palm exactly where the pain was and rubbed with just the right amount of pressure until it went away. It seems a magic intuitiveness flowed between us after all, but from him toward me.
Ona Gritz's newest book is PRESENT IMPERFECT. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Ploughshares, and Brevity, and been named Notable in Best American Essays. Find Ona at onagritz.wordpress.com, on Twitter @ofawn, and on Instagram @onagritz.