Insight

Book Reviews about Silence and Solitude by Jill Barlow-Kelley

My life is noisy.  Both my home and my work place are noisy.  And sometimes I am seeking space to myself.  With the Guild’s programmatic shift to focusing on silence and solitude, I offer this short submission about books I have enjoyed and would recommend to members. 

In thinking about solitude, does it automatically mean one is alone and silent?  And to revel in silence, must one be alone?  Nature-based theories that support silence in nature as healing and opportunities for faith-based meditation practices, as well as silent retreat venues and opportunities to plan your own, have always been available to seekers.  

I am an eclectic reader and enjoy a variety of books about silence, solitude, and meditation written by different authors from different points of view and backgrounds.   

A Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow-Lindbergh.  With each chapter the author meditates on her life, its fullness and riches while also struggling with the same.  This book is classic and I read it annually.

An Unknown Woman:  A Journey of Self-discovery by Alice Koller is a memoir by a woman who rents a place on Nantucket in the middle of winter with a German shepherd puppy.  They spend long days alone walking the beaches as she revisits her life and considers her future.  The Stations of Solitude, also by Alice Koller, is a more intense version of those explorations than the first book and is a more journalistic deep dive into her life’s work. 

A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland explains Sara’s six-week stay in a remote cottage on Isle of Skye, Scotland as she experiences prolonged silence and isolation. In her account of being surrounded by a bleak environment, she explores her own demons and shares them with readers.  She has magnificent encounters with herself within the natural surroundings and she also struggles with being in her own skin.  

Biography of Silence by Pablo d’Ors’, translated by David Shook, is about his long term Zen meditation practice and describes the ways he found deep silence and a greater sense of self.  He describes the seated positions, how he struggled to settle into them, and how he was able to work past joint pain and distractions and begin to rejoice in the motions.  It is a tiny book, a quick read, and the translation comes across as quite “chatty” with readers.   

There are many more books to read and explore.  I wish the best in your discovery.