“Do you want to feed him?” asks another colleague, Cathy, handing me a 6-month-old ball of charm.

“Hello, handsome,” I say, as I scoop Peter up in my arms.

And so begins my shift in the infant room at a small day care center. It’s a job I never imagined I’d be doing. For many of my working years, I was a foreign correspondent, covering police raids in Soweto and protests in Bangkok. I married and had two children, but the marriage ended, and in 2012, I found myself back in my hometown in New Hampshire, raising my children on my own.

Then they went to college, and suddenly my home was quiet. Writing is a lonely profession. I needed something more.

One day last fall I saw an ad for “baby snugglers.” I had no formal training in childcare, but my experience as a mother was enough.

For nearly a year now, I’ve spent my mornings writing articles and my afternoons feeding and burping babies, changing their diapers, and soothing them when they cry. Being at the day care is the best job I’ve ever had, but I don’t think of it as work. It’s more like a reward. If I’m caught up on my morning’s writing, I’ll go to the center early.

I know my colleagues and I are there to nurture the children. What I didn’t expect is that these babies nurture me too. When my own children were young, I wasn’t very good at living in the moment. But I’m getting better at it every day. With the babies, the present is all there is.

One day, I arrived there feeling upset about something. As I made my way to the door, I took deep breaths to calm myself, because I didn’t want to bring any negativity to the babies.

I needn’t have worried. The moment I walked in, I was at peace.

Jaimie Seaton, 58, a former foreign correspondent for Newsweek and The Sunday Times of London, is a frequent contributor to AARP Travel.