The Restory Retreat Centre

I’ve never been snowed in. In South Africa this will be a newsworthy event, especially if it happened in Pretoria, where the lowest temperatures in winter resemble summer days in Vancouver. But a little more than a week ago, on Monday, the 20 th day of February, I had a snowbound day.  I awoke to the sound of gentle rain patting on the leaves of the mulberry tree outside my window. Late February and already the days are getting noticably shorter. Far away the hadidas were proclaiming the day in a most ungraceful way. I lay quietly for a moment, recouping on the weekend and contemplating the week ahead. For one, I won't be driving anywhere today, I thought: my car’s battery pack had simply passed away after starting with just a little sluggish behaviour late last week.  The previous evening though, when I turned the key in the ignition, I found it dead. No need to go anywhere! With a very good reason not to go anywhere! It gave me such a delicious, indulgant ...

  My pa het sy verstand op Kromdraai gekry. Lank voor enigeen van hulle van ‘n Wêrelderfenisgebied geweet het. Dit was bloot die plek van sy kinderjare waar hy in die veld en rivier gespeel het. Nou, op sy oudag, vandat hy begin vergeet het watter dag dit is en hy angstig aantekeninge op die kalender maak, het sy dwalende gedagtes asof vanself omgedraai. Loop hulle terug na sy begin toe. Kromdraai toe. Hy raak al hoe meer tuis in ‘n vervloë tyd wat ek nie ken nie. My pa word algaande al meer gesus in die Wieg van die Mensdom.                                                     George

Listening is at the heart of our spirituality. It is the basis for meditating, the single most important instrument in spiritual direction. When listening, all our other senses come alive and we become quite literally sensitive. The most important prerequisite for listening is to keep quiet. Better still, become quiet. For that reason listening is so difficult. We’d rather talk. But oh! GOD is in his holy Temple! Quiet everyone--a holy silence. Listen!"                                                                                              Hab. 2:20 The Message Some people listen, while others simply wait to talk.                                 ...

I’m musing over something that just gently happened. To the extent that it seems as if it only waited to happen. It relates very closely with my thoughts in “A life integrated” and “Gateway to heaven” that I wrote earlier. When we started with our newsletter last year, we did it mainly to write about The Restory at Rietfontein, life on the farm, quiet days and the influence of ordinary life on our spirituality. Those matters remain the basic elements for most of the entries on our blog, the latter flowing gradually out of the newsletters. Hence the name Restory News. But we also write about more than Rietfontein and The Restory as such. We wrote on our experiences in Prague. There are pieces on sculptures, a striking quote and curios. From time to time we have poems and prayers. Our photos cover a variety of subjects. Yet, although our contributions do not always relate directly to The Restory, we do not feel in the slightest that we are disloyal to our initial intentions. On...

An Introduction into the Silence this weekend! For everyone who initially wants to wade into the silence slowly, as a first time experience, guided days will be held during our usual Quiet days on 18 and 19 February 2012. These days will be structured and include a gentle walking meditation in a group and practical guidance on how to quiet down. Pottery clay and tools will be available to use  and a light lunch will be served.  Please click on  the About Quiet Days tab for more information.

Note: This is a piece written in Afrikaans. It is my mother tongue and therefore I sometimes need to let rip in it in order to express myself without the constraints of having to really think (as in using the right tenses and getting the right word). I will gladly translate it if need be. Please let me know!    My flower, seek not thy paradise in a fool’s buttonhole.               -        Tagore Hierdie is my quote of the moment . Nou al vir die afgelope twee jaar! Hoe kan ek dit stel? Wat maak dat iets daardie inklikklank maak as ek dit lees? Asof iets net reg lê en presies in plek gedruk word – soos ‘n verlore legkaartstukkie wat onder die mat uitkom en in sy plekkie inklik met ‘n piepklein sug van verligting. Daar is nie baie sulke aanhalings nie. Wel, daar is, maar dis ‘n klein hoop teen dit wat mens als lees en sorteer na die Snert, Oulik, Hmm, Waar, en Sjoe hope. En anders as die ander hope, is hierdi...

Amongst the many sculptures in Prague there are a few that can be described as .... different. You will almost always be correct if you were to guess that they are the works of well known, often controversial Czech sculptor, David Cerny.   High above one of the streets of the Old Town (Stare Mesto) is the Hanging Man sculpture. It can just as well be called Hanging On. The man in the precarious position is Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis with its focus on man’s inner workings. He is the one person who should know that central to the human existence is the choice to hang on or to let go. The impact of the sculpture is all the more striking if you stand with a tour group in front of the former headquarters of the communist Secret Police where a good deal of torture and interrogations took place. Then, almost as an afterthought, just as the group is about to move on,  the guide draws your attention to this work of Cerny, suspended in mid air,...

An intriguing phenomenon- the curio trade.  A tourist destination offers a range of items, often made in China, as being representative of its people, history or natural beauty. Who decide on the products that will have the honour? Has every popular city or site its own curio committee that convenes regularly to determine the stock for the tourist season? That will explain the absolute duplication to be found in the different shops. Why do tourists buy them? Do locals also buy curios? To remind them, not of having been there but of being there? “Who are we, Darling?” “We are South Africans, living on the African continent.” “You don’t think we should buy a picture of the Big Five to indicate that we have been to South Africa?”  “We haven’t been to South Africa. We are in South Africa.” “But will people know that without us having the curious to prove it?” “You have a point. Throw in an ostrich egg and an African drum and I believe we have ourselves a state...