From The Restory - Conversations On The Journey (145)

God, And The Place Where I Live

Our voices are so thick and scratchy from bad colds that we were unable to make a recording this week.

However, we hope to still do justice to this important theme of the place where we live, our home, yard, environment, our space, wherever it is, as the space where God is experienced. Where God is. The more intimately we engage with this space in all its shades and seasons, the more intimate the bond with God becomes.

Wallace Stevens once said:

"We live in the description of a place and not in the place itself."

It cannot just be a superficial experience, a description. We must enter into the fibre of our place. A couch potato approach will not do the trick. You have to be on ground level: Where does the rush grass sprout after the heavy rain? The Black Sparrowhawks have been quiet this year. Why? Does anyone have any idea how many species of grass there are? Why do the fountains bubble up in those particular places at the foot of Tafelkop?

Wendell Berry is an important guide in these things. His wisdom guides us into an earthy, spacious spirituality.

Hope

then to belong to your place by your own knowledge

of what it is that no other place is, and by

your caring for it as you care for no other place, this

place that you belong to though it is not yours.

That's what we would talk about if we could talk.

We close with this prayer by Teilhard de Chardin:

God must be as vast as the Universe

and as warm as a human heart,

and incomparably more besides.

This is all we can say.

With our love.

George & Matilda

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Vanuit Die Restory - Gesprekke Tussen Reisgenote (110)

Die Week Na 'n Dood Sebastien op sy gelukkigste - by water, besig om vis te vang Die Gesprek Elemente Uit Die Gesprek Musiek Sebastien het altyd gesê, "I like old music.' Hy het. Billy Joel se Piano Man was vir baie lank die ringtone op sy foon. Dat ons só gelukkig kan wees, dankie Sebas. George & Matilda

Vanuit Die Restory / From The Restory (135)

Onlangse Oorsig / Recent Summary Foto's Van Onlangse Gebeure / Pictures Of Recent Events 'n Huis opgeknap en geverf met 'n nuwe badkamer, die koms van lente en reën, retreats, die CMR se breimarathon, aanbied en afsluiting van die Verfrissingskursus in geestelike begeleiding, bywoon van ons kleindogter Ariana se gradeplegtigheid ("Nee Oupa, dis 'n gradige plegtigheid!") voordat sy volgende jaar grootskool toe gaan. A house renovated and painted with a new bathroom, the arrival of spring and rain, retreats, the CMR's knitting marathon, presenting and finishing the Refresher course in spiritual guidance, attending our granddaughter Ariana's graduation before she goes to big school next year. Klank / Sound Die klank van sagte reën na die storm is op baie vlakke nou gepas. The sound of gentle rain after the storm is now appropriate on many levels. Met ons liefde, soos altyd. With our love, as always. George & Matilda

Vanuit Die Restory - Gesprekke Tussen Reisgenote (120)

Skuld as Motivering Die Gesprek Elemente Uit Die Gesprek ~ ❖ ~ "I am convinced that guilt and shame are never from God. They are merely the defenses of the False Self as it is shocked at its own poverty — the defenses of a little man who wants to be a big man. God leads by compassion toward the soul, never by condemnation. If God would relate to us by severity and punitiveness, God would only be giving us permission to do the same (which is tragically, due to our mistaken images of God, exactly what has happened!)." Richard Rohr ~ ❖ ~ "It is about as hard to absolve yourself of your own guilt as it is to sit in your own lap. Wrongdoing sparks guilt sparks wrongdoing ad nauseam, and we all try to disguise the grim process from both ourselves and everybody else. In order to break the circuit we need friends before whom we can put aside the disguise, trusting that when they see us for what we fully are, they won't run away screaming w...

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