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Civilization Advances on Wooded Retreat; Dayspring Hopes to Keep the Peace by Fending off Proposed Commuter Road

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From: The Washington Post
Date: 19880414
Author:Claudia Levy

`And silence, like a poultice, comes

To heal the blows of sound."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes

It's not really all that quiet at Germantown's Dayspring silent retreat center: Several blue jays are squawking over territorial rights, the pond is overflowing with a mild roar into its creek run-off drain, and, off in the distance, an occasional car swishes along Neelsville Church Road.

But it is quiet enough here amid the dripping, leaf-rustling sounds of the rainy woods for a visitor hunkered down by the pond to easily succumb to contemplation. There are at least a billion frog eggs suspended in ...

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