My brain depends on tiny bits of information as I proceed through each day. With only scant details I am unable to perceive all that is around me, and luckily I don’t have to. Usually just a few pieces of info is all I need to identify another person from a distance by their walk, the car they drive, a coat they wear or how their hair is cut. Finding my way to a place I have been before only takes a few landmarks remembered from a previous trip there.

Even if I could absorb more information, there is no way my mind could take it all in. My brain makes snap decisions about which pieces of information to process and which to discard and in the end I end up being a good guesser about most things.

Relationships are no exception. Often we really don’t know much about another person, we just think we do. That lapse in judgment makes us prone to being wrong. There have been numerous times when I thought someone was upset with me because he or she seemed quiet or distracted. Then later I found out their behavior had nothing to do with me. Being aware of this propensity toward misjudgment can help avoid a lot of misunderstandings.

No matter how confused, concerned or just plain wrong my mind may be sometimes, it is almost always watching out for me. That’s the beauty of my brain and the trouble with it too. I am grateful to have the awareness to know when most of the time to tell myself “that’s enough, move on!” or “you’re jumping to conclusions, stop!”

Be yourself and think for yourself;
and while your conclusions may not be infallible,
they will be nearer right than the conclusions forced upon you.
Elbert Hubbard