The Restory is a Retreat Centre nestled against Tafelkop, a singular mountain head near Wakkerstroom, South Africa. Here we live a simple life as contemplatives.
It is a place of re-connection: with ourselves, people, Nature, Silence and Creativity. Our retreats are aimed at this. Our conversations, writing and art centre around the univocity of life. We need a place that reminds us that we are all one. The Restory hopes to be such a place and space.
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From The Restory - Conversations On The Journey (127)
If I want to tell more about myself, the very best might be to just start by saying "I love..." and then list things that I love.
So: I love......
....Tafelkop. The big world of which I am a part, silence and to walk.
The Conversation
...time spent with my M. Where we talk for long stretches, and laugh, or are just quiet together for long periods of time.
Elements From The Conversation
....our granddaughter, Ariana. Who loves books very much and keeps asking: "Oupa, tell me a silly story!"
....books. And dogs. And cats. And tea.
....a good conversation. Sculpting and woodwork. To write.
....poems. More so by the day. Basically impossible to pick a single one, but on my birthday, this one from Billy Collins. It talks about things one thinks about at 60.
Design
I pour a coating of salt on the table
and make a circle in it with my finger.
This is the cycle of life
I say to no one.
This is the wheel of fortune,
the Arctic Circle.
This is the ring of Kerry
and the white rose of Tralee
I say to the ghosts of my family,
the dead fathers,
the aunt who drowned,
my unborn brothers and sisters,
my unborn children.
This is the sun with its glittering spokes
and the bitter moon.
This is the absolute circle of geometry
I say to the crack in the wall,
to the birds who cross the window.
This is the wheel I just invented
to roll through the rest of my life
I say
touching my finger to my tongue.
Billy Collins
Music
.....all music, but especially Jazz. Its creative, unpredictability. That it does not shy away from silence and takes all the time in the world to say what it wants to say.
....contemplative spirituality that continuously weaves me into all the elements of ordinary life and sensitizes me to experience and recognize God in everything.
When I Returned From Rome
A
bird took flight.
And a flower in a field whistled at me
as I passed.
I drank
from a stream of clear water.
And at night the sky untied her hair and I fell asleep
clutching a tress
of God’s.
When I returned from Rome, all said,
“Tell us the great news,”
and with great excitement I did: “A flower in a field
Wakkerstroom Klassieke Musiekfees 2025 20 - 23 Maart 2025 “God sprei die hemel uit oor die leë ruimte, Hy laat die aarde hang waar niks is nie. Hy versamel die water in die wolke, en hulle skeur nie onder die las nie. Hy plaas die horison op die see, 'n grens tussen lig en donker. Dit is maar die begin van sy dade, ons hoor net die gefluister van sy woorde. Maar die volle krag van sy dade, wie kan dit verstaan?” Job 26:7-8, 10, 14 AFR83 Dit is weer daardie tyd van die jaar! Herfs is oral sigbaar en voelbaar en daar is die geur van kreatiwiteit en voorbereidings in die lug wanneer jy ons klein dorpie binnekom. Hierdie naweek bied ons ons jaarlikse Wakkerstroom Klassieke Musiekfees aan. Wonderlike, talentvolle musikante van oral, tegniese spanne en die mense wat hulle optredes sal bywoon, stroom na Wakkerstroom. Musiek is nie die enigste item ...
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 t...
Drawing by Ron Leishman When last did you whistle while working? When last did you hear someone else whistle while working? Somehow it bothers me that whistling has become an almost absent element in our work. The sound of a person whistling a tune while busy somewhere in the house or out in the workshop conveys something of an underlying happiness, satisfaction and contentment. An enjoyment of the work itself. The tune need not be flawless. Applying more air than sound won’t lead to disqualification, as long as the intention is there. Whistling can even be replaced by singing in all that I’ve said up to now. The same principles apply. The absence of any of these two activities bothers me because it says something about us doing the work and the type of work that we do. Can it be that our type of labour in this 21 st century is not conducive to either whistling or singing? What type of work is that then – draining, stressful, pressured? Or are our conclusions ...
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