On a recent hotel stay I left my room for the day and when I returned I noticed that I had left the "do not disturb" sign on the door. The room had not been cleaned because the cleaning service assumed that I was in the room and they are trained to follow the instructions on the sign. The cleaning service was in the hallway and I asked if she would clean the room and she replied "I didn't think you were in the room but I had to obey the sign." The sign told her not to bother me, even though I was not in the room and needed service.

That occurrence caused me to wonder how many times I have left home and gone through the entire day not realizing that I had not taken the "do not disturb" sign from my facial expressions or my attitude? Did people walk by me and not speak because they were rude or did they see the sign that I had failed to remove when I started the day. Does my smile invite others into my space or does my frown say stay away? Do I function not realizing that there is something about me which says "do not disturb".