Judith Valente is a poet, a journalist, a Benedictine oblate, and the author of books including Atchison Blue: A Search for Silence, a Spiritual Home, and a Living Faith and How to Live: What the Rule of Saint Benedict Teaches Us About Happiness, Meaning and Community. Her books of poetry include Discovering Moons and The Art of Pausing: Meditations for the Overworked and Overwhelmed which she co-authored with Br. Paul Quenon OCSO and Michael Bever. Silence has two sides to it... silence could be very burdensome... so silence also has to be balanced with community. Too much silence can be deafening, it can be stifling to a soul. — Judith Valente Judith shares how a poetry workshop at a monastery led her to a meaningful encounter with silence at midlife — how a room "saturated with silence" introduced her to a maxim from St. Benedict: "At all times, cultivate silence" — thus inviting her to seek rest in solitude and stillness as a response to her busy (and exhausting) life. All poems begin in silence, and the poems themselves are a part of the overall silence that we experience. — Judith Valente She talks about her ancestral ties to Monte Cassino (where St. Benedict founded his last monastery), and how Benedictine spirituality helped to inspire her and her husband to become involved in organic farming. She goes on to reflect how nature, beauty, and poetry are all linked to her spiritual life. She tells some chaarming stories about her fellow poet, the Trappist monk Br. Paul Quenon (who Cassidy Hall interviewed for our episode 32), and about the bullfrogs and cicadas who "sing" to her in the silence of a cabin on her farm, where she often goes to write. Our conversation meanders over the problems associated with social media, poets that Judith loves and a special reading of her poems, "Discovering Moons" and "Lunar Eclipse." Contemplation is a big fat word for gratitude. — Br. Paul Quenon, OCSO Some of the authors and resources mentioned in this episode: Judith Valente, How to Live: What the Rule of Saint Benedict Teaches Us About Happiness, Meaning and Community Judith Valente, Atchison Blue: A Search for Silence, a Spiritual Home, and a Living Faith  Judith Valente, Discovering Moons  Judith Valente, Br. Paul Quenon, and Michael Bever, The Art of Pausing: Meditations for the Overworked and Overwhelmed Judith Valente and Charles Reynard, Twenty Poems to Nourish Your Soul Saint Benedict, The Rule of Saint Benedict Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Personal Writings Wendell Berry, What I Stand On: The Collected Essays Wendell Berry, The Selected Poems Paul Quenon, In Praise of the Useless Life: A Monk’s Memoir Paul Quenon, Unquiet Vigil: New and Selected Poems Sara Maitland, A Book of Silence Judith Valente, Inventing an Alphabet Mary Oliver, Devotions: The Selected Poems Marie Howe, What the Living Do Marie Howe, The Kingdom of Ordinary Time: Poems Poetry is for everyone... Poetry is truly a 'soul friend.' Poems will come back to us when we need to hear their message. They will come back to us at different points in our lives, poems that we've read, poems that we've heard; they are our soul friends.  — Judith Valente Episode 39: Silence, St. Benedict and Writing: A Conversation with Judith Valente Hosted by: Kevin Johnson With: Cassidy Hall, Carl McColman Guest: Judith Valente Date Recorded: October 15, 2018