I had spent many weeks in the backcountry before, but never right after a meditation retreat. Never with a mind quiet enough to take in all the natural world had to offer.

Constantly thinking is like having a constant filter between us and the sunshine of life. We experience life through, in between, and over our thoughts. This shuts out the true light. We miss the direct experience.

Instead of traveling to some remote part of the world, we seek a remote part of the self. We seek a quiet mind, inner peace. People of all religions and no religion are making a pilgrimage into silence. They are making a silent retreat.

In normal life we are trapped, watching our mind racing around the track of our non-stop thoughts going around and around and around. Love is a silent retreat, enjoying no mind, no thought. The stillness all around touches the quiet inside.

Stepping out of our worldly identity can lead us to the freedom of "no self." No self, no problems. Embrace this awareness, and we find the joy of being our true self in the world.

Silence is time away from time, where we discover the treasure of one's own company. This is the heart and essence of a silent retreat.

After a few days of peace and quiet, time free from our mental traffic, retreat participants begin discovering new parts of themselves. They find inner resources that they never found in therapy. Silence and nature give inner silence and harmony.

Beginning our retreat, there may be anxiousness or restlessness separating from our habits, the routine we think we are dependent upon. Soon, there is a lightness of being, freedom, and joy in our surrender. Simple peace is present.

In silence, our world opens to this goldenness, what is life giving and true. A silent retreat is free time where simple being and inner stillness conspire to light up our minds with the light of our soul.

Coming into silence with a busy mind is like leaving the fast, crowded highway, pulling into a small fishing village with one dock, one store, and the water slowly lapping at the sea shore. We jump out of the car excited to find such a place, and then what?

Instead of celebrating and partying with the usual aches and discomfort the next day, why not be in the perfect stillness and let the peace and quiet bring its special presence into our lives?

Maybe the gift of silence is what this year's holiday is really about. The gift of silence can restore the mystic within an unbelieving soul. Given the opportunity, the peace and stillness this Christmas Eve can restore something even more beautiful: our innocence.

My silent treatments started 15 years ago. Stressed out, worn out and wigged out, I wanted out - of town, that is. But I was in no shape to make tra...