Comfortable silence

In my book, one of the biggest indicators of a good relationship, whether that be with a friend or a romantic interest, is “talking” on the phone for an extended period of time.

Before getting ready for bed last night, I spent nearly 20 minutes on the phone with Peter. I'd seen him just the night before, but some times there are some friends you need to talk to more regularly than that. Probably less than 10 minutes of the time we spent on the phone together was us actually talking. The rest was us just sitting in silence.

That he was willing to sit on the phone with me in almost complete silence for 20 minutes? That’s pretty telling. And that it wasn’t the least bit rushed or awkward? That's even better. He didn't mind that I didn't have all that much to say. At no point did he say anything along the lines of, "That's it? That's all you've got?" and he easily could have.

The luxury of sitting in comfortable silence with another person, especially when you're talking on the phone, is one of my all-time favorite things. With some people the comfortable silence comes after getting to know each other a little bit. But with others it's quite inherent. The fact that you can spend time with someone else and just . . . be. There's no other word to describe that feeling besides awesome.