The Restory Retreat Centre

I have no way of proving that God exists. For a long, long time I believed because I didn't think I had a choice. If it is a choice between heaven and hell, you do what it takes to secure your celestial seat. Somehow I never stopped to consider why I so strongly believed in a heaven and hell, but wasn't nearly as sure that there's a God holding the keys to them. Then the sunbirds came. Slowly but surely I am being taught the dialect I need to converse with God. Or rather, to follow on what seems to be a trail that God leaves me. Being just up ahead and beckoning me all the while, it's not a chase after or a search for God, but rather a joint venture with God scouting and reporting back when my spirit runs low on this journey through life. In  A Rare Find  and  Bird on my window sill  I touched on synchronicity. I have come to believe that consciously living our moments, awakens us to the fact that there are more things in this life than meet the eyeball. Things that

It was at the end of the 1990’s that I started setting up my woodworking workshop. At that stage I bought second hand machines and overhauled them over time while I was busy farming and working with my dad in the engineering workshop. My idea was to start with the basics and gradually build it up from there. It was interesting, reading up on articles from a variety of woodworking magazines, what was regarded as “the basics”. Some said a table saw and a planer-thicknesser. Others thought you could not be without a band saw or a router. To a novice like me it was confusing and in some ways debilitating. Quite often during that period I said to myself that I could only start thinking of any project once I had the right machines and the ideal workshop. Which meant that it took a long time for me to actually put my hands on a piece of wood and make something, because for a long time I was under the impression that I didn’t have any of the two. Then one day, on a journey into town, I h

Photograph by Michael Kenna “The discipline of the heart makes us stand in the presence of God with all we have and are; our fears and anxieties, our guilt and shame, our sexual fantasies, our greed and anger, our joys, successes, aspirations and hopes, our reflections, dreams and mental wanderings, and most of all our people, family, friends and enemies – in short all that makes us who we are… We tend to present to God only those parts of ourselves with which we feel relatively comfortable and which we think will invoke a positive response. Thus our prayer becomes very selective, narrow and unbalanced. And not just our prayer, but also our self-knowledge, because by behaving as strangers before God we become strangers to ourselves.”                                                                              Ronald Rolheiser

Photograph by David Liittschwager I often say to Matilda that I am convinced that were any person to draw a 1m x 1 m square on the ground, with him or her standing in the middle of it, on any spot in the garden – not to mention a forest floor, a pasture, or a river bank – there would be more than enough activity, life forms and drama in that small space to warrant a life time’s attention. For that reason this photo was such a find for me. It pictures the creatures to be found in 1 cubic foot of coral reef. Which makes me realise that my focus was primarily on the ground around my feet. I haven’t even brought the birds flying directly overhead, or the insects in the air of that small square into the equation! Somehow the phrases “Nothing is happening in this place!” or “This must be the most boring spot on the planet” have a shallow, ignorant ring to it. George

By the pie ces announcing themselves lately, I get the feeling that I’m thinking a lot about prayer: how we use and abuse it, what it says about our view of God and ourselves, our image of piety. Something else that’s trotting along for some time now stems from a remark made by J.W. Krutch on the writing of Henry David Thoreau that I read a while ago: “His humor was, on the other hand, part of his philosophy. He meant his jokes and was never more serious than when he was being funny.” Have you heard this one? An overweight man went on a diet. He was so serious about it that he even changed the route he used to follow going to work- it no longer passed the bakery. Then, one morning, to the astonishment and dismay of his supporting colleagues, he walked into the office with the most delicious coffee cake. However, all their scolding could not wipe the heavenly expression from his face. He simply said: “This is a very special cake. I accidentally drove by the bakery this

A man was driving down the street on his way to an  important meeting  and couldn't find parking. Looking up towards Heaven, he said, " Lord, have pity on me. If you find me a parking space, I will go to church every Sunday for the rest of my life and give up drinking. " Miraculously, a parking space appeared. The man looked up again and said, " Never mind. I found one."

You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, call to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – over and over announcing your place in the family of things.”                                                                                                                ―  Mary Oliver Sometimes we need to hear this. It is possible to be too good. And for all the wrong reasons. This poem by Mary Oliver has led me into a whole new

Photograph by Michael Wood Life is short and we must move very slowly.                           ~ Thai Proverb

Photograph by Willie van Zijl God is the name by which I designate all things which cross my path violently and recklessly, all things which alter my plans and intentions, and change the course of my life, for better or for worse.                                                                                     Carl Gustav Jung