Not Saying Much

I’ve spent my day today with Laura, one of my oldest friends. We went floating in the morning - it was her first time and after having talked about it glowingly for years, I was worried she wouldn’t find it as good as I’ve hyped it up to be. Fortunately it seems she had a positive experience, and it was nice to have shared that deep sense of peacefulness with another person. Afterwards we headed to Spitalfields Market for lunch, and then headed to Brick Lane to do some more vintage clothes shopping.

Altogether we spent about 8 hours together, and during that time, we barely spoke. Perhaps if you added it all up we might have said an appreciable amount to one another, but I think at least 75% of the time we were in silence. Having recently had a conversation about how I find it difficult to relax around even my closest friends because I am still wondering what they think about me in any given moment, it felt great to be comfortable enough with someone to just walk and eat and exist all day, rather than needing to be funny or perceptive or profound.

I’d love to be like that with more friends, and more people. Maybe I should learn to just stay quiet more often and see what happens.