After the first day of a silent retreat, you’re feeling the pinch.

Once, on silent retreat at a monastery in remote Galong, NSW, I saw a little pub way off in the distance.

Was this a mirage? A temptation from the devil? So long as I didn’t talk to anyone down at the pub, what rule would I be breaking, drinking and playing pool by myself? 

At the pub I discovered a small problem. How do I ask at the bar for a pineapple vodka cruiser when I’m not allowed to speak to anybody but God in prayer? I mused I could pretend I was dumb, but I do that enough already.

So I stood at the bar, looked to the heavens and prayed in a loud voice: “Oh Lord, I could do with a pineapple vodka cruiser!”.

Miraculously, the bartender serves me a chilled pineapple vodka cruiser which I swigged down gratefully.

Then I hear: “That’ll be $9, thanks Friar!”

So I prayed aloud again. “God I hope there’s some money in the pockets of this habit!”

Due to religious poverty there wasn’t, and I couldn’t speak to tell him why.

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You think that was awkward, you should have seen me when the police arrived trying to give them my name in sign language. 

OK, I threw a couple of lies into that story, but I have made many retreats under many forms of spirituality and can attest that silence, if you can hang in there, is an amazing experience!

I probably don’t write enough articles extolling silence. You need a level of silence to read an article. Nay, the better the article, the greater need for silence while reading it ... you’re not reading this while watching TV, are you?

I have discovered that a little bit of silence says so much. Silence really is “the quiet achiever”.

Unlike many versions of noise, there is little money to be made from silence, and so the product is very rarely marketed. 

Notice when we are doing something we consider important we like, even demand silence.

When somebody tells us something earth shattering that background noise that didn’t bother us, all of a sudden, is so distracting. 

But when we’re doing something unimportant or mundane, we do the opposite – we turn on background music or TV.

When the world wants to pay its respects to the passing of a great individual, with what does it pay? A minute’s silence. 

If we want some focus in our life, we need some quiet. 

Before Jesus began his ministry, he prepared for it. Not in the library, or at the pub, but in the desert.

What’s the desert got that the town hasn’t? Silence. 

Spend even five minutes a day in silence, listen to your conscience and watch what happens.

You may not always like what you hear, but even that will be helpful in becoming centred and focused.