To Face a Mad World

 The village healer was a little old woman, and at the moment she found herself sitting in her worn, patched chair by the fire. 

    She sighed. 

    It seemed the world had gone mad today.

    The village itself was plagued by an illness, and half of the populace wouldn't take the medicines she prepared for them that would ensure an ease of pain. The kingdom was getting ready to go to war due to unscrupulous behavior - but on whose part, the healer didn't know. Regardless, many would be needlessly wounded or slaughtered or both. Food would be scarcer than usual. People would starve. And to top off the end of a truly horrid day, she had burnt the soup and under-cooked the bread. 

    Well, she thought to herself, it was hard to go wrong with a bit of cheese.

    The old woman bit into the small wedge she had cut for herself, wiggled her toes in their darned wool socks, and then took a sip of hot tea as she watched the flames flicker.

    The world may be going mad, but there were still pockets of things for which she was grateful.

    Which is what made it possible to get up the next day and do her work all over again, finding a little peace in the hope that maybe, just maybe, despite all the odds, she was doing something good.

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