When you say nothing

Another problem with working the twilight shift is that MDH and I don't get to see each other much.

I get home at 2:30am and MDH is already tucked up in bed. When I wake up in the morning, he's already left for work. When he gets home at night, I've already left for work. Ships passing in the night and all that.

I've actually gone 7 days without talking to him this week.

I guess this is when we learn to communicate without speaking.

Before I leave for work, I make his dinner and leave it on the stove so he can heat it up when he gets home, exhausted from a day's worth of tedium. This actually means 'I love you'.

When I wake up in the morning, still groggy from lack of sleep, I find that he's done all the washing up and taken out the trash. This also means 'I love you'.

He puts away his ties and refills the waterjug with filtered water. I file away our correspondance and vacuum the carpets.

A plateful of chocolate chip cookies, a freshly laundered shirt, a pine-scented kitchen, a fluffed up pillow...this is how we talk. And I am learning how to listen.