Welcome to Friends of Silence
A contemplative community rooted in silence, wisdom, and shared listening.
In 1980s Detroit a woman named Nan gathered a small group of people willing to risk the foolishness and audacity of bringing the pain and turmoil of their time into a cave of Silence and sitting with it.
Nan began writing a monthly letter to her Friends of Silence, including in it quotes from what she was reading woven with her own words of encouragement.
Nan has passed on now. The letter continues making its way into the world, helped by a quintet of hunter-gatherers and scribblers, apprenticed both to Nan’s vision and to the trade of reading, writing, and soul.
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On the first day of each month,
our newsletter arrives as a contemplative offering—
essays, reflections, and invitations shaped by silence.
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Published since 1988, search over
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on silence and the contemplative life
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