I decided today that I would go downtown to do some work. As a freelancer, I basically work from any coffee shop with a decent internet connection. My favorite coffee shop is Good Karma Cafe. I like going to the Society Hill location, which is quite a journey, but if I’m going to be there the whole day, I might as well go to one that I feel that I can get a lot of work done. My journey involves taking the trolley, switching to the subway, and then walking another 3-4 blocks.
As I was waiting at the trolley stop, I began to observe this young lady and the way she carried herself. Watching her, I realized that the way we conduct ourselves and our body language can really cause people to judge or make assumptions about who we are or wonder if there’s anything going on in our lives. It is human nature to judge people, which doesn’t make it right, but regardless, we can’t help ourselves some times.
The trolley was approaching and she began to walk to a spot where she thought the trolley was going to stop. The trolley went about 15 feet past that spot and she had backtrack to get to the entrance. From the look she gave, you could tell she was a little annoyed. The trolley had another 3-4 stops before getting to the stop I was getting off. The lady was sitting in the aisle seat next to a young man. When we got to one of the stops the man next to her indicated this was his stop. Her body language conveyed the same sense of annoyance, but stood up to let the man out and sat back down. Body language speaks a lot, whether it really matches how we feel or who we are. I even had to stop myself after few thoughts of “does everyone have to cater to this lady?” or “hello miss unhappy.” First of all, who am I to judge this person? Also, I have no idea what’s going in this person’s life. Maybe she’s going through a rough stretch in her life.
I realized something from this short encounter. Our body language speaks a lot, whether it speaks the truth or not, I don’t know. It speaks all kinds of things, depending on who the recipient is. Does this mean I’m going to be more careful in the way I carry myself? I don’t know. I don’t want to be fake either. I do believe that our inward condition is manifested outwardly. Some are better than others at hiding it, but that can only last for so long. I guess what I’m saying is, instead of focusing so much on my outward expression, I should focus on my inward condition. If I’m happy inwardly, it’ll automatically show outwardly. What makes us happy inwardly? God, family, friends, and, did I mention, God.
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