Perceptions

Every one of us makes daily decisions about people and things, based on our own perception of the situation at the time. We don't always make the right decision, and by the time we've made it, or by the way we made it, it's often too late to recover what we've lost.

Friendships lost through misunderstandings are the hardest to deal with, there's rarely 'closure', so they fester at the back of our minds, occasionally popping up to remind us what we've lost.We find ourselves going back over our reactions to situations and regretting being unable to talk it out. Did 'they' really mean that when they said it? Was that their intention? Should I have said something differently? Did I jump to the wrong conclusion? Should I have let that one go? If I'd said something in a different way, would things all be fine now? Should I have given the benefit of doubt, and not allowed my judgement to be clouded?  Maybe I shouldn't have been so thin skinned - should I have swallowed my pride?

Now, it's too late, time has pottered on, as time so often does, and the deep friendship is no more, perhaps there are occasional words which pass between us like ships in the night, but memories of fun, love and support still remain, and the regret of loss will never leave me.