Go Quiet on the Mountain

What happens when you actually choose the quiet you’ve been craving? New York Times bestselling author Jedidiah Jenkins finds out in this meditation on the power of sabbatical and return.

On the edge of burnout and frustrated with life’s brain-rotting demands, Jedidiah Jenkins did what so many dream of but few actually do: He disappeared. There is never a good time to vanish, but he did it anyway. He left his new boyfriend and his smartphone in Los Angeles, bought a paper road map, and moved into a one-hundred-square-foot shed in a remote Colorado town—no internet, phone service, or plumbing, and only a woodstove for heat.

Over sixty days and nights—long enough to be meaningful but short enough that many of us could try it ourselves—what begins as a digital detox quickly becomes a confrontation with something deeper: The pace of twenty-first-century life has covered up truths he’s never allowed himself space to process. Why can’t I focus for ten seconds? Why do I keep crying for no reason out here? Why do all my relationships end in disaster?

Along the way, he immerses himself in the weird, wonderful things you notice when you push back against the noise. He befriends Holly, the innkeeper who holds all the mountain town’s secrets. He swaps stories with Chicken Bill, the local man who wears a chicken suit every day. He bathes in the ice-cold river and writes letters to the boyfriend he fears will ultimately leave him. And as he grows quiet and listens to his heart, it leads him to a decision that will change his life.

This is not a book about hating technology. It’s about the beautiful, dangerous act of living on the other side of stimulation. It’s a case that without deliberate rest, we rob ourselves of crucial revelations that can only come from quiet contemplation. If you’ve fantasized about throwing your phone into a pond or wondered what modern life is doing to your brain, Go Quiet on the Mountain is your invitation to step away, listen, and discover for yourself.