Know how you can live with someone for years...

... And still not understand much of anything they say? Several examples are coming to mind right now, including multiple college roommates, parents, siblings, a husband and several children.

I'm stumbling onto a breakthrough here...

It's possible that I'm a bad communicator.

Shoot.

I thought for a long time that I was a literate, articulate, witty and clever sort of girl. Um, perhaps not so much. Rats. I came to this conclusion after a period of "Why is everyone crazy but me?"

Hint: If everyone is crazy but you, there is some rethinking to be done.

(Remember cutie-pants River Phoenix as the teenage Indiana Jones? "Everyone's lost but me." I feel that way all the time. Dang.)

Turns out that "articulate" guarantees absolutely nothing in the whole communication game. It's all a matter of one thing. Patience, you say? Listening? Seeking First to Understand*? No. None of that helps. The only way to understand anything anyone is talking about: ESP. Mindreading. Telepathy.

Develop a psychic tendency, and you will get it, finally. All things will become clear.

Hope that helps.

*Nod to Mr. Covey, whom I have never met, but I did work at his company my third year in college.