This Sunday, May first, I am headed to the Forest Refuge at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA for a month-long silent retreat. I am excited about going. The simplicity of the retreat environment, designed to allow us to sustain our focus, has over the years encouraged me and many others to see into the processes of our distractions and entanglements. Things are pared down so we can experience in a sustained way the beauty of our unadorned lives and connect more clearly with our life purposes: how they are reflected in our relationships, career, family, and the world we are making with our lives. We discover, moment by moment that our essential nature, aware, kind, compassionate, and wise is always and already present.