Cloister at Santa Chiara, Italy

It is good to be able to meet up with friends or family. After a long separation, it is nice to catch up on all the news. This takes time. So often, when you meet in a big group, communication is lost in the forest of chatter and banter. But with time and space, and personal attention, it becomes possible to talk about things that matter.

And then, when the exchange of news and views is finished, there comes silence. What do we do with it? It can feel scary. Entering into the silence together is to take a risk. Either we break the silence with another jocular remark. Or we journey through the silence and emerge with the truth.

Generally, silence is not popular. Many people need their portable music. They know 'silence is golden' but only as a sixties pop hit. The full expression is 'speech is silver, silence is golden'. It seems to have come into English usage from Switzerland, where it was 'reden ist silbern, schweigen ist golden'. In the German, the silence is not something objective that surrounds you (and possibly frightens you). It is something you do. In English, there is no direct translation of schweigen. We can talk and speak but there is no word for 'to be silent'. We don't really do silence.