Silence Singing:

realizing Harmony

In times of trouble

Welcome, as we bring  Silence Singing to the Appalachian Mountains in Black Mountain, North Carolina, at the Light Center Lodge. This Memorial Day weekend, we will explore the movement of song, and the stillness of meditation, with guest teacher Joel Karabo Elliott, and Silence Singing founder and facilitator, Thomas Walker.  This will be a weekend of connecting to our innermost spirit of creativity, while learning to be in harmonious communion with one another. We welcome musicians and meditators, as well as those new to these practice, to enter into a time of cultivating deep silence, as well as joyful creativity.  



the light center lodge
Black Mountain, North Carolina
May 22-25, 2026

Click here for more information and to register
Click here for more information and to register

This retreat will be hosted at the Light Center Lodge. Most rooms are shared, and meals will be communal.

Our lodging will be just a five minute walk from the Light Center, which “was created as a secluded place where people could come to pray, meditate, and rejuvenate in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is dedicated to prayer for individual and societal change.”

“Mission: To increase awareness of the Oneness of All That Is by expanding Light, Peace, and unconditional Love. “

“Vision: To provide an environment that supports individual and universal transformation through effective prayer, compassionate education, service and creating Good moment by moment.”

We are grateful to be able to be converge at this wonderful location, with a creek and walking trails nearby. The Light Center itself will only be accessible during retreats at its regular operating hours.

Please join us in enjoying the Light, and the beautiful land.

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FFfacilitators

This retreat will be led by Thomas Walker, founder of Silence Singing, with special guest facilitator, JoEl Karabo Elliott.

“Joel Karabo Elliott is an American:Mosotho composer, singer:songwriter and multi:instrumentalist whose music sings the song-stories of his journey from the towns of America to the rivers and villages of the Limpopo. He is the curator and co:founder of the renowned Roots Grown Deep world music and creative education ensemble, which has branches in Southern Africa and North America and continues the work of Musical Ecology.

joEL is an educator, school design consultant and trainer of teachers rooted in Consciousness-based education. He believes that nature, community and freedom are all integrated through the healing power of sound and manifested or realized through music. He has played an integral role in the establishment of several rural community based projects, including the Sedikong sa Lerato Moringa Cooperative and Bjatladi Youth Development. He is also a musical death doula with the Center for Conscious Living and Dying”

Thomas Walker is a hospice chaplain and facilitator of music and meditation experiences. From Northern California, and now living in Brooklyn, NY, by way of Oregon, he brings together his love for inner transformation through silence together with devotion through sound and song. Thomas holds a Masters of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary, where he studies Buddhism and Interreligious Engagement, particularly studying transformation through sound and ritual. In 2025, he began to bring these passions together through these retreats as Silence Singing.

the Land and Accommodations

Retreat Structure and schedule

Sample daily schedule: 

  • 6:30 Wake up

  • 7 AM Meditation and Group Song Service

  • 9 AM Breakfast

  • 10 AM Vocal Exploration and Community Workshops 

  • 1 PM Lunch

  • Open, Rest

  • 5 PM Musical Exploration or Meditation

  • 6 PM Dinner

  • 7 PM Meditation and Evening Program

  • 9:30 Retire

Who is this retreat for?

This retreat is for participants with all levels of experience in meditation and music, including: 

  • Musicians and lovers of sound who want to find a deeper connection to the silence.

    • It is very different to play a nice sounding melody than to offer a melody that comes as a medicine, a teaching, or a celebration from the depths of your inner silence. Great music comes from beyond ourselves, and we contact this “something beyond” in the practice of stillness and silence.

  • Meditators who want support giving create expression to the truths they find in the silence.

    • It is one thing to find the meditative space of silence, and another to let it sing through you. Since we will express ourselves in this life, it is important that we learn to express ourselves fully and wholeheartedly, without self-criticism and reservation. This is how we can find our truest expression and healing potential.

  • Those who have a story they are “not creative” or “not musical”, or creatives who feel stuck.

    • Come join us and challenge this limiting, false belief and open to the creative connection that is the birthright of every human being. 

  • Those new to meditation who would like an introduction that is filled with fun, lightness, and loving community.