By midwinter Sara had developed a very clear and personal rule about how she would live.
She had noticed that waiting to feel kind before acting kindly almost never worked well.
On the hardest days the feeling of kindness was the hardest feeling to locate inside herself.
So she stopped waiting for the feeling and began making the decision before each day began.
Each morning in the cold attic she chose kindness before getting up and facing the world.
This meant that when Lavinia was cruel the choice had already been made and she held to it.
Her kindness became something people could count on in exactly the way they count on sunrise.
Kindness is always a choice — Sara chose it every day no matter how she was treated.