Decomposing Family Function

Most times in my family it's easiest to avoid stumbling over any of an ever-growing list of things it's not OK to say, by saying nothing at all when I cannot think of anything appropriate on the ever-shortening list of things still OK to talk about. This mutual solitary confinement does little good. Somehow we can still hear each other thinking. Although I would rest easier if I had learned to think nothing at all, this feels deeper than mere rest, further than I am prepared to nest without this family, yet where love is hard and sparse between continents of despair and angry fear of silence spreading from words to thoughts to feelings fading to self absent of other silent echoes.