The Restory Retreat Centre

“Francis called all creatures, no matter how small by the name of brother and sister; because he knew they had the same source as himself.”                                                     Saint Bonaventure's Life of St Francis "If humankind could have known God without the world, God would never have created the world."                                                     Meister Eckhart "In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!"                                                   Colossians 3:11 (New Revised Standard Version) ~ o ~ From time to time they appear in our blog posts, but we haven’t introduced them properly. We apologize.  So, here they are, the dogs and cats that share Barrowfield with us. They will be introduced according to age with the result that there will be no distinction between cats and dogs. As a rule we do not see

“No matter how slow the film, Spirit always stands still long enough for the photographer it has chosen.”                                                                                        - Minor White Every retreat is a journey in itself, a process of discovery and growth.  I have always been fascinated by the wealth of knowledge that abounds and the intellect’s ability to tap into that and apply it in any number of ways. To a large degree my mind has always been my tool of choice in relating and understanding my world. In a society and culture that prides itself in being rational, it was to my advantage. However, through grace and my exposure to contemplation I have discovered how limited and limiting my approach has been all these years. My strength has also been my weakness in many ways. According to the Law of the Hammer, in modern times mostly contributed to psychologist Abraham Maslow, “if the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to tre

I really did not know that there was a word for it.  I am always hungry for it, longing for it, searching for it, missing it way too many times, and over the moon every time I encounter or am part of it. In Shakespeare’s play Richard III the king cries out, “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” My cry would be, “Deipnosophy! Deipnosophy! My kingdom for deipnosophy!”  Deipnosophy means the love of, or skill of, dinner-table conversation (from the Greek deipnos – dinner).  It is truly like wearing a pair of shoes two sizes too small when you’re at a social gathering where conversation consists of boasting (telling of recent holidays, best airlines, worst stop-overs, bad service at well-known restaurants, the fuel consumption of their new SUV, the trials and tribulations at the last Comrades marathon she ran and names dropping. Among other things), rugby talk, dirty jokes and innuendos and topics solely picked from facebook pages and whatsapp messages on a cell phone t

I'm on a quest to get back my creative flow that somehow got buried alive by all that seem to have priority over my creative endeavors.  I tend to do that with things that feel like play.  As we have come to realize, living a simple life, does not mean that it is an easy or leisurely life. On the contrary; no packets of frozen veggies or ready made meals await us when we come in from the studios. It is the life we chose and prefer but it is very easy to lose sight of what our main aim is. To live contemplatively, with creativity, silence and nature as our nurturers, and to create a place where people can come to recharge and be restored. So when I get to the stage that I feel completely stunted, especially where my writing is concerned, I have to allow the laundry to wait until tomorrow and feed my starved inner artist. The diet is simple but shows immediate results:  What I need is sparks. Tiny morsels of seemingly insignificant happenings that sets the gears in motion i

Autumn leaves Photo by Matilda Angus And For No Reason And For no reason I start skipping like a child. And For no reason I turn into a leaf That is carried so high I kiss the Sun's mouth And dissolve. And For no reason A thousand birds Choose my head for a conference table, Start passing their Cups of wine And their wild songbooks all around. And For every reason in existence I begin to eternally, To eternally laugh and love! When I turn into a leaf And start dancing, I run to kiss our beautiful Friend And I dissolve in the Truth That I Am.                                             -Hafiz   

Quiet moment. Photo by Matilda Hoe kom ek daar waar Rilke God se slippers* is en Hafiz se brood, die wye lug**? Hoe kom ek daar waar ek vir myself mooi soos Rilke fluweelslippers is? Waar Hafiz en Rilke met God speel? So klink dit, met min ontsag of dan met soveel inherente agting vir hulself dat dit mag; Dat God speelmaat vir hulle durf wees en hulle ongetwyfelde bemindes. Hoe word ek Beminde? As ek vir myself so ver tekortskiet; blind daarvoor dat met die ferweel van my lyf reeds afgeskif ek steeds geliefde en verkose slippers bly. Hoe kom ek daar waar Rilke is? Om God met elke asemteug te snap en terug te antwoord in die kamers van my lyf. Matilda Angus 3 April 2016 (Tydens die skryfretreat)                                                                           -----+----- *What will you do, God, when I die? I am your pitcher (when I shatter?) I am your drink (when I go bitter?) I, your garment; I, your craft

I have always loved this line from Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel  The Hours . We experience the truth of it constantly in our work in the retreats, spiritual direction and listening. What you see is quite often not what you get and patient love is required to bring us to the point where we really get to know our deep self and reveal something of it to another person. The gentle, delicate way in which God goes about doing that never ceases to amaze Matilda and me. We also know that we have to treat that very vulnerable part of being human with the greatest respect and care. George