The Art of Silence

I was recently in Japan, visiting a good friend while nurturing and growing a better understanding and relationship with her when I realized that she had given me so much more than simply a place to lay my head while I was visiting.  Diana opened not only her home to me, she opened her heart, she bared her soul, and she lived with me.  Not just lived in the sense that we occupied the same space at the same time; more like she LIVED with me, experiencing things  parallel to me, noticing things that I had not noticed and pointing them out, sharing her very different and unique perspectives, and living simultaneously yet very differently.  This is the sort of sharing with another human being that I have not done in quite a long time, and I did it very deliberately while relishing each and every moment, remembering to be thankful for…