“No, sweetheart. Being nice doesn’t make people take advantage of you. Sometimes people simply forget that kindness is a gift, not something they’re automatically owed.”
She thought about that for a moment.
“Then how do you know when to stop helping?”
I smiled.
“You don’t have to stop caring about someone. But you do have to pay attention to whether helping them means hurting yourself or someone you love.”
Emma nodded thoughtfully.
Then she looked out the window.
“I’m glad our car broke down.”
I nearly missed the turn.
“What?”
She giggled.
“Not because you had to pay for the repair. That part was bad. But if it hadn’t happened, we might never have known how many people cared about us.”
I pulled into our driveway and switched off the engine.
For a moment, I sat quietly, letting her words settle.
She was right.
For two years, I had believed I was the person holding our little neighborhood together. I had been so busy helping everyone else that I hadn’t noticed how many people were willing to help me, too.
