Kindness Trumps Greed

"Kindness trumps greed: it asks for sharing. Kindness trumps fear: it calls forth gratefulness and love. Kindness trumps even stupidity, for with sharing and love, one learns." ~Marc Estrin~

So I had my life thrown for a loop again and this time I even bounced back faster. I was hurting, for sure, even shed a few tears, called a friend who enlightened me with a dose of reality and then "twang" the rubber ball bounced. I was thinking though...... why is it that just when you feel like you have surfaced and that you are breathing that this bugger of a life as to push you back under?
I have a good friend who told me a story a few weeks ago. She was visiting a different ward with her family and she went to speak to a family member who was sitting in a bench prior to church starting. She could see that he was reading his scriptures. She politely asked if this person had seen their mother. He looked up and made a sharp comment about "can't you see that I am preparing for the sacrament meeting?!" My friend turned to her brother and said "You see that book you are studying from. Let me give you the Coles Notes version. Be nice! Now where is Mom so I can help her."
Life is just like that. Sometimes in our own efforts to be better we exclude or hurt or lose sight of real kindness. I am guilty of this and just now I am trying to recognize the world as a universal place and that I am living in as an individual in a global community. It's hard when you need to find peace in yourself by giving yourself away in the service of others. It's a balance that I am not sure is as easy as some think.
I have never been failed in life by simply following my heart to kindness. I hope that I can overcome my many weaknesses before it's too late and that I can be remembered for the giving heart I feel I have, without giving so much of my heart away that it is lost.
Tough balance, I know.