Hey, Slowdown listeners, this spring, we have two live events coming your way.

In L.A. on March 28th and Nashville on April 8th.

Find more info at slowdownshow.org.

I'm Major Jackson, and this is the slowdown.

I am contemplating going on a silent retreat this spring.

Many of my friends have done it.

They returned to their daily lives distressed.

The idea came to me in the produce section of the grocery store.

Just as I reached to squeeze an avocado, I recalled a meeting I missed earlier that day.

The Zoom call was listed on all my calendars, but I reached my saturation point.

I plumb forgot.

In my head, I suddenly envisioned a retreat with rolling hills, yoga mats, wind chimes, and a breeze beneath my

peaceful calm. I shopped the produce section in the longing days. I need to reconnect with

myself. Today's uproarious poem makes me want to abandon our life of chatter, to throw off our overly scheduled existence.

I want to wake up to truths that can only be gleaned when I fade out sequentially every duty that impresses upon me as needing to get done.

Desert Sayings by Donovan Maccabee.

We have, indeed, to fashion our own desert where we can withdraw.

Henry Nowan, the way of the heart.

Abba Jehoshaphat told Aba Eli that all creation cannot contain silence.

A saying of Aba Stephen, each word is jealous of the silence it intrudes upon.

Amma Lydia often recalled that the sound of her heart's truest prayer was the echo of silence.

A certain monk was walking through the Negev when he had a vision of a devil holding three leather whips,

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