Sorrow and Bliss

by Meg Mason

But my mother was beginning to describe herself as a conscientious objector where domestic matters were concerned.

It was not enough to be extraordinary to the three of us.

That scene and every other seemed to vibrate with brilliance and humor as I typed them. The next day they read like the work of a fifteen-year-old with encouraging parents.

But, he told me, “Everything is redeemable, Martha. Even decisions that end up with you unconscious and bleeding in a pedestrian underpass, like me. Although ideally, you want to figure out the reason why you keep burning your own house down.”

“I’m fine, Patrick. It’s just been a full day of men who loved me once then stopped or thought they were in love with me, then realized they were just hungry or something.”

“Surely the only time one needs one’s blood effervesced is when life is utterly flat.”

pied-à-terre’s

pied-à-terre’s

“It’s the thing I’m most ashamed of now, I think.” I stood up and put my hand out for it. “Out of, obviously, an array of options.”

“I loved her unfortunately.”

letter. I have been loved every day of my adult life. I have been unbearable but I have never been unloved.

I have felt alone but I have never been alone and I’ve

been forgiven for the unforgiveable thing...

I can’t say I have forgiven the things that were done to me—not because I haven’t. Just because, Ingrid says and it is true, people who talk about how t...

We talk about various things: if the hinge on the dishwasher door can be fixed or not; how two people who have ruined each other’s lives can be together again.