What language are you speaking?

     Not long ago my husband and I went out for dinner. It wasn't a fancy place by any stretch but I found our waitress rather interesting. She actually said all of the appropriate words and was even quite polite with her choice of phrases. However, what she portrayed in her gestures seemed to give the opposite message. She did not give us any eye contact and if she did I did not notice as it was so quick it wasn't measureable.She was fast efficient and clearly did not want to be there . I have had poor service before but not usually with all of the right words and niceities given at exactly the right time. The only thing missing was the desire and the heart to serve . 

     Recently, I heard from a friend the account of a patient being admitted to the hospital I work in. He was in pain and was admitted with a terminal illness. The greeting this patient and his family received as he was accompanied by the porter off the elevator as he met his nurse was........

                       EYE ROLLING!!!

     No words, just eye rolling. This became the topic of discussion among the family who then informed their friend who then called me to tell me. One action , no words carried with it a message that portrayed that this nurse had no time for this very ill patient and his family and  did not care about the difficult place they were in and in general showed zero respect. I can appreciate the stress that this nurse may have been under because as a nurse I have had within me many eye rolling feelings roll around in my mind from time to time. Hopefully, they have stayed in my mind and I didn't execute these feelings with actual eye rolling. I guess I'll never know for sure. Anyway, both of these accounts made me ponder my own actions and gestures in a new way.

I wonder what language I speak to others as I go about my day?