She sad amid the silence, and between the breath and stillness around her, she realized
That there are so very many shades of silence:
The tight, cold waiting to see what that noise in the night was,
The prickle-eared awareness of what children are up to on the opposite end of the house,
The sudden release and escape from sound after turning the car engine off, the one you didn’t realize how much you needed,
The anxious elongation of time-thread that pulls between you and the answer to that Very Important Question,
Or this:
A silence that comes as just
plain
quiet.
Soapbox: The Way I see Things 
Some silence is welcome. Some silence is not. Some silence is calming. Some silence is frightening.
Silence… sometimes we crave it and other times it’s forced.
The slice helps the reader to infer although this phrase, “time-thread that pulls between you and the answer ” gives more meaning to the text.
Thank you! Yes, there are several situations that thread-pulling silence takes over.
For me, I have to confess my favorite silence is the one in the car. 🙂
Oh this was so beautiful to read. You found a way to describe silence and include all of the range of emotions that follows it.
Thank you. :))
A silent house can be magical.
Absolutely!
Gorgeous rendering of the shades of silence (now I am hearing Simon and Garfunkel: “Hello darkness, my old friend I’ve come to talk with you again… the sound of silence.” Most of the time, I love silence so I can hear my own thoughts. My husband has to have noise (TV always on). We strike a between-shade.
Ah yes, I remember that song! My husband, although more introverted than I am, tends to be heavier on the noise scale than I am. Like you, I prefer a blank soundtrack to my thoughts.
Love this study of silence. Thank you for sharing. There is also the silence of a never returned text or no comments on a blog post. 🙂 Or the silence of not writing.
Or the silence after you turn off a podcast before bed. Your body suddenly aware of the hair on your neck, the pajama fabric, and the density of the pillow.