The thing that breaks when you say its name is silence. Some moments are better left unbroken.

Some things exist only while nobody mentions them. A quiet drive, a room where two people are comfortable, an easy pause after something true was said: naming it ends it. The urge to fill a gap usually comes from your own discomfort rather than the other person’s, and talking it away costs something you cannot get back.

Try sitting in one silence this week instead of rescuing it. In the car, at the table, on a bench after practice. Let it run a few seconds longer than feels normal and see what it does.