Yes, I couldn't have said it better. Plus the thing is that I went on the retreats to escape Christmas. So I'd go for a week or two, the first day would be ever

Yes, I couldn't have said it better. Plus the thing is that I went on the retreats to escape Christmas. So I'd go for a week or two, the first day would be everyone yapping (almost too much of the reverse), the second would be what I was after, then I got several days of this enforced silence... Until the last day. I think some of these people were coming from noisy workplaces and homes. But I live on my own and my area is reasonably quiet (not completely peaceful, there is a lot of low level sound.) I don't have children running around. But it also reminded me of being punished as a child. Because if they couldn't catch someone at school we had to go around in silence as a punishment. I would prefer the noises of nature. Which is precisely what I did. I headed to the local nature reserve near the retreat centre. Not noisy but somehow less prisonlike.