When the World Fell Silent

by Donna Jones Alward

Life was a precious gift. And yet I felt the hopeless despair deep in my bones, and it unsettled me.

You have so much integrity. You expect people to treat you the way you’d treat them, and you’re hurt when they don’t because you have a huge heart. You are kind and loving and smart and you work so hard.

I’d thought love meant settling and perhaps even boredom, but the reality was so different. It was kindness and patience and steadfastness. It was knowing what the other person needed and doing it with a glad heart, not for any sort of reward other than love itself.