Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Grace

I turned my cart towards the fifteen-items-or-less checkout line and stopped short when I noticed the woman in front of me had a full cart -- well over 15 items! Three, five, ten, twelve, seventeen. . . I stopped counting and wondered, Lady, can't you count? Ready to get home after a long day, I swung my cart into the adjacent line.

Waiting for the person ahead of me to pay his bill, I watched as she unloaded her cart --one item at a time. She is someone's grandma, I thought, as I admired her silver hair and noticed her sensible shoes and unhurried pace. She probably didn't even see the sign.

The sales clerk glanced at the cart, then at the sign, then caught my eye and smiled. He shook his head a little, but spoke kindly to the woman as he scanned her items. His actions more gracious than my impatient thoughts.

I stopped at the end of his checkout stand and told him, "You are a gracious gentleman, and you have blessed my day." He simply smiled again and said, "Thanks."

1 comment:

Daphne said...

How nice of you to compliment him. I sometimes feel the same impatience in similar situations, and I try to remember that could be my grandma, or my mom, or me. But it can be difficult to shift out of that "hurry hurry" mentality.