Silence and solitude have never been more important. They preserve us from exhaustion, from fanaticism, from restlessness — from excess. They remain the fertile ground of creation, the source of contemplation, the place of mindfulness and, between two lovers so at ease with one another that they don't need to fill the space around them with conversation, of intimate communion. It is only in solitude and silence that our life is really present, that we are truly responsive to the heartbeat of the universe and free to contemplate the miracle of existence.
— John Lane, The Spirit of Silence