How Hazel Saved my Smile by Scott Crawford

I got this email from a customer and Phoenix workshop participant Scott Crawford:
For those of you who don't know, Hazel is Julie Hutchison's three year old daughter. Julie owns the Lakewood Phoenix...

"This afternoon I was moping along the sidewalk, kicking slushballs to the gutter and grumblemuffling through my chattering teeth about how chilly the wall street meanies were being when I decided the only thing to do was take a few minutes to slow down and warm my popsicle toes at Phoenix coffeehouse down the block. As I sat at my tiny table, sipping from my big mug of blacker than black Nicaraguan magic elixir, I opened up my laptop to see if the world outside was getting any softer. An article here led to a news clip there and finally to a new posting on YouTube of an Amy Winehouse video. As I sat watching and listening to Amy sing Marvin Gaye's "Heard It Through the Grapevine," I suddenly noticed a small face leaning into my view from just below my right elbow.
Hi, I said.
Who are you?
Hazel. She said.
You wanna watch? I asked.
I'll go get my cookie, she said.
Hazel made three trips down the bench and back to retrieve her cookie on the plate, followed by her cup of juice, and finally her baby doll.
What's her name, I asked?
Anteater, said Hazel, She's 3 months old.
She's just a tiny baby, I said.
She just came down from my belly, said Hazel.
And so for the next half hour or so, Hazel and I sat at my laptop and instead of reading about the news on wall street, or trading money for paper, or worrying about the news in faraway places, we watched videos of musicians and monkeys and dancing and funny faces. And when it was time for me to go back outside, it wasn't so cold. And I thanked Hazel and Anteater. And made a note on my computer to thank Sarah and Carl and to come back again another day to warm up with Hazel.