the silence before a meeting is never truly silent is it? it's humming with unspoken expectations, anxieties held tight in solar plexuses, a low thrum of possibility maybe i should start measuring the decibels of pre-meeting tension, could probably predict outcomes that way. and then the relief of it being over, the silence returning, slightly lighter this time, carrying the echoes of what was said and unsaid, and that's where the real work begins, sifting through the residue, the quiet moments of understanding dawning later, sometimes days later, that's the silence i crave, the silence after the storm where you finally hear what you needed to hear all along.