The moments that mattered the most were the ones filled completely with silence. In the modern world, silence can often mean the worst of news: the death of a loved one, the calm before a massive storm. Yet for the two of them, the silence only indicated the tranquility unrivaled even by the gentle washing of oceanic waves against a sandy shore.

The silence held more meaning than the most enriched of words. In one beat of silence: I love you, but it took at least three to spell it with the mouth. It took at least three seconds for him to say that she was beautiful, but only one for him to reach for her hand.

In the today, the world of cell phones and Internet and the constant stress of communication, society places too much emphasis on words and too little on emotion. Of what assistance are words if diplomacy causes wars, if miscommunication causes rifts in relationships? Words can flow lovingly into poetry, understandably, but what good is Shakespeare if it holds no compassion? It’s no good, and it instantly morphs into words of Seuss-like proportions.

Only the heart has a direct pathway to the eyes. A look is enough to transmit the poetry that the tongue may not be able to form. When pop culture provides a romance with metaphorical fireworks and an exuberant soundtrack, it’s merely exhibiting the noise that has no place in the simplicity of emotion.

She used to jabber unnecessarily, finding it mandatory to constantly fill the air with her nervous laugh and mannerisms. Yet she soon discovered, abetted by her thudding heart, that the noise within her was enough. Of course, she didn’t stop talking altogether: staring at a person for hours in silence is just downright creepy. But instead, she found herself thinking that maybe the silence wasn’t such a bad thing. The silence didn’t mean an absence of expression or the calm before a storm. It didn’t warn of a coming danger, and it didn’t mean that all hope was lost. Instead, the silence that enveloped her so warmly in his arms was a new form of noise. It was the noise of encompassing emotions, of understanding and sympathy. In retrospect, the silence was like a waterfall: it was the loudness of tranquility. The silence was a brand-new genre of resonance: the epitome of being completely, entirely in love.