For those who wish to look beyond the speed and superficiality of our modern lifestyle to find depth and spiritual space. It is devoted to clearing the clutter from our minds, and to feeding the creative heart and soul.

Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter One: Some Spiritual Spaces Attitudes to silence and solitude in different cultures: Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist Chapter Two: Staying Quietly in Ones Room The creative use of silence: Hildegard de Bingen, Ryokan, Emily Dickinson, Henry David Thoreau, Paul Cezanne, Giorio Morandi, Harlan Hubbard, Thomas Merton Chapter Three: The Enemies of Silence The two-fold enemies; compulsory schooling; the exaggerated importance of money and the myth of consumption; work as a bane; the cult of speed; escaping the fast life Chapter Four: Tools for Re-enchantment The art of the commonplace; creativity, gratitude and praise; the healing power of nature; the importance of relationship; living in the moment; looking for the beautiful; the meditative approach; negative capability; reverence; seeing; the virtues of silence and solitude; simplicity; walking; the virtues of slow living Chapter Five:Just Live Right Living in the midst of turmoil; Virgil and a civil war; Michel de Montaigne and the French wars of religion; Walt Whitman nurses the wounded of the American civil war; Yusuf Islam and the orphans of war; Wangari Maathai plants 20 million trees; touching peace and stillness; service, expression, silence Notes Bibliography