Work was tense today. Not a bad day -- but Lynne (the owner) and Jayne (another older lady) were the only others on. Lynne was short tempered, and Jayne is a little....clumsy? clueless? I'm not sure what. She's the nicest lady alive, and she tries so hard to be helpful, but sometimes you just want to tell her to leave it alone and let someone else do it. She only has one spiel when anyone walks in the door way "Hi folks, lots of goodies to look at..big and small. If you have any questions we'll try to answer them for you." I found myself mouthing along this afternoon. I found myself getting frustrated with her "help" this afternoon, and then I realized, I will be just like her when I get old. I'm clumsy, and doggedly determined to do everything myself. When I'm older I'm sure I'll keep trying to be useful. And I'm sure I'll cause lots of younger people to shake their heads and wonder why I don't just go somewhere else and leave the work to the competent. So, keeping that in mind, I'm trying to treat her as a competent, and respect her as an elder. I'm ashamed to admit that I still got impatient a lot. One of her legs is an inch or two shorter than the other (the result of an airplane gangplank being removed while people were still on it). So she totters around the antique shop coming perilously close to falling on things. In fact she did fall down last week, breaking several lawn ornaments in the process, but mercifully not breaking her hip. Lynda launches tirades, wanting Lynn to not let her come back because next time she might seriously hurt herself, or break something more valuable. But, if I were in Jayne's place, I wouldn't want to be condescended to. I keep remembering the week that I danced a show on a broken foot because I was NOT going to lose the role. Well, anyway it's not my shop, and I don't have to make that decision. But I need to treat her with respect, even when I'm frustrated because I'm picking up something that she's knocked over for the dozenth time.