Before each of us can have a voice of our own, we must enter a silence we can enter only together. It’s a silence without walls. By stepping back to be the listener who has nothing to say we discover the just as there is no language that is exclusively our own, there is no silence that is not a shared silence.*
James Carse

Two people try to speak at the same time,
Two others sit together in silence –
Both scenarios appear wrong to us –
We know that one has to be silent while the another speaks,
And then they swap places –
we know this should work better.

James Carse, though, invites us into
the deeper listening and silence of the infinite game
of life:
The listener with nothing to say – to assert, to demand – is moving from Ego to Self,
Just as language arises from Human sharing, so does silence –
When I am silent to myself, I am also silent to you,
Someone’s true voice can only arise from listening in shared spaces,
Silence doesn’t hide behind walls, but is open, inclusive.

Silence is not absence from but a deep form of relationship.

*James Carse’s Breakfast At the Victory.