Refuge

If there was ever silence or distance in my part, it is either out of respect for another's consternation or merely a desperate act of self-preservation.

To lessen another's hurt or to lessen my own. When words maim, silence becomes a balm. When presence aches, absence becomes refuge. 

Or not.

And then one remembers, fa inni qaribun. There is no silence, no solitariness that is without Him who is the last refuge.