A few cell phones ago, I checked and discovered that I had logged a total talk time of 20,000 minutes.

20,000 minutes, almost seven hours wasted talking on a cell phone, not a work phone or a home phone but the one that was initially just supposed to be used for emergencies. And that is just my total time on that phone which, if memory serves, I later dropped in my dog's water dish. Who knows how many minutes I've logged on cell phones since.

I've gotten worse this past year.

As soon as I get in my car, I don't reach for the radio dial or my cd case anymore. I reach for my cell phone. I used to study French. I used to listen to NPR on my morning commute. I used to listen to stories, amazing stories, from the audio books I checked out of the library. Lately, I just check them out and then I renew them and then I renew them...

I don't want to be this type of person. This talk all the time kind of person. I want to make my words count. So when a friend recently told me about a silent weekend retreat he was planning in Trappist, Kentucky, I was intrigued.

I signed up earlier this year. Judging by the schedule posted on the Abbey of Gethsemani's Web site, I can spend the weekend attending religious services or I can spend it in quiet reflection, or some mixture of both.

I chose quiet reflection. I'll admit, the thought of not talking from Friday afternoon through Monday is more than a little scary. Those that know me seem doubtful I can do this. One even asked for video proof.

I leave Friday.