When We Were Worthy

by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen

She pretended not to see some things, not to know a lot of things, and not to feel anything at all.

Everything was something lovely once, something to behold. It was only after the world got to it that it became too worn to appreciate anymore.

If I can stop one heart from breaking I shall not live in vain.

But it was rare that anyone got what he or she deserved in this life, for better or for worse. Which was what made it so awful and amazing at the very same time.

Maybe that’s what everyone in the world was searching for—someone who, when they felt vulnerable and exposed and afraid, would meet them in the doorway with a look of love so pure it made all that other stuff fall away.