Practising kindness

"Love is a power that moves us to be kind...Kindness is love acting on persons. Such kindness may be soft; it is not weak; tender, but note feeble; senstive, but not fragile."

Lewis Smedes, Love Within Limits, p.12.

What's considered a life well-lived? How to feel good about life at the end of it? For me, perhaps working on my 2008 year resolution is one step towards that direction.

Practising kindness on my students at school - to show more patience and respect to the ones that seem to be asking "stupid" questions all the time, being more understanding that they may be trying to learn. Keep my cool.

Practising kindness on my piano students - to use a softer tone of voice and not get upset when they don't practise. After all, they're still kids.

Practising kindness on the parents of my piano students. A student's grandma in Hong Kong is seriously ill, and the family is scrambling air tickets to fly back asap. Instead of reiterating my policy, I ended up sharing about peace and making exception for last minute lesson cancellation. It would be horrendous if she (a Catholic) finds that a Christian piano teacher expresses no sympathy but thinks only of financial gain. Thank God that I wasn't talking entirely about money.

Things were not rosy, but it's been a good week. If I may express kindness everyday, I think I will feel my life's well-lived by the end of it.