The Restory Retreat Centre

  Gratitude As Motivation “ You don’t get wormy apples off a healthy tree,  nor good apples off a diseased tree.  The health of the apple tells the health of the tree.  You must begin with your own life-giving lives.  It’s who you are,  not what you say and do, that counts.  Your true being brims over into true words and deeds.” ‭‭Luke ‭6‬:‭43‬-‭45 The Message                               ‬‬ ~ ❖ ~ “ My friends, this can’t go on.  A spring doesn’t gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it?  Apple trees don’t bear strawberries, do they?  Raspberry bushes don’t bear apples, do they?  You’re not going to dip into a polluted mud hole  and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?” ‭‭James‬ ‭3‬:‭11‬-‭12‬ ‭The Message‬                             ~ ❖ ~  The Conversation Ele...

Dankbaarheid As Motivering “'n Goeie boom dra nie slegte vrugte nie,  en 'n slegte boom dra weer nie goeie vrugte nie.  Elke boom word aan sy eie vrug geken.” ‭‭Lukas‬ ‭6‬:‭43‬-‭44‬ ‭AFR20                               ‬‬ ~ ❖ ~ “'n Fontein laat tog nie uit dieselfde oog vars én bitter water uitborrel nie? 'n Vyeboom, my broers, kan tog nie olywe dra, of 'n druiwestok vye nie? 'n Brak fontein kan ook nie soet water gee nie.” ‭‭Jakobus‬ ‭3‬:‭11‬-‭12‬ ‭AFR20‬‬                             ~ ❖ ~  Die Gesprek Elemente Uit Die Gesprek 'n Proe aan die lys uit Barbara Ann Kipfer se besondere  14 000 Things To Be Happy About. ~ ❖ ~ "To become fully human  means learning to turn my gratitude for being alive  into some concrete common good.  It means growing gentler toward human weakness.  It means practicing forgive...

  Today We're Not Talking The feature that stands out the most for us about Tafelkop is the fog. In the 9 months we have been living here, it has been and is a constant – winter and summer, early morning, late afternoon, at dusk when we go for a walk, then the fog rolls in through the gap where the road goes through Kastrolnek. As if it were constantly pressing against the back of Tefelkop, discovering the opening, breaking through and spilling over roofs, yards, fields. With the thick veil drawn over everything, we know there are still big trees in the lane. We hear them dripping. Other than that, it is dead silent.   In between. Not quite rain and not quite sky. Not totally dark, but not really light either. Early morning recording at Tafelkop - Holy Saturday Today is Silent Saturday.   The foggy day. Somewhere between death and life, where something has passed, but the new is not yet. Where the familiar beacons that provide our coordinates and make us feel safe are gon...

Vandag Praat Ons nie Die eienskap wat vir ons die sterkste uitstaan van Tafelkop, is die mis. In die 9 maande wat ons nou hier bly, was en is dit ‘n konstante – winter en somer, vroegoggend, laatmiddag, teen skemer wanneer ons gaan stap, dan kom die mis ingerol deur die keep waar die pad deur Kastrolnek gaan. Asof dit die heeltyd teen die agterkant van Tefelkop druk, die opening ontdek, deurbreek en oor dakke, werwe, lande spoel. Met die digte sluier oor alles getrek, weet ons daar is steeds groot bome in die laning. Ons hoor hulle drup. Verder is dit doodstil.   Tussenin. Nie heeltemal reën nie en nie heeltemal lug nie. Nie totaal donker nie, maar ook nie regtig lig nie. Vroegoggend-opname op Tafelkop - Stil Saterdag Vandag is Stil Saterdag.    Die mistige dag. Êrens tussen dood en lewe, waar iets verby is, maar die nuwe nog nie is nie. Waar die bekende bakens wat ons koördinate verskaf en ons veilig laat voel weg is. En vae buitelyne geen aanduiding van nuwe lewe is nie...

  The Bible - Thoroughly Human   The Conversation  Elements From The Conversation  “I know that the Bible is a special kind of book, but I find it as seductive as any other. If I am not careful, I can begin to mistake the words on the page for the realities they describe. I can begin to love the dried ink marks on the page more  than I love the encounters that gave rise to them. If I am not careful,  I can decide that I am really much happier reading my Bible than I am entering into what God is doing in my own time and place,  since shutting the book to go outside will involve the very great risk  of taking part in stories that are still taking shape.  Neither I nor anyone else knows how these stories will turn out,  since at this point they involve more blood than ink.  The whole purpose of the Bible, it seems to me,  is to convince people to set the written word down  in order to become living words in the world for God'...

  Die Bybel - Eg Menslik   Die Gesprek  Elemente Uit Die Gesprek  “I know that the Bible is a special kind of book, but I find it as seductive as any other. If I am not careful, I can begin to mistake the words on the page for the realities they describe. I can begin to love the dried ink marks on the page more  than I love the encounters that gave rise to them. If I am not careful,  I can decide that I am really much happier reading my Bible than I am entering into what God is doing in my own time and place,  since shutting the book to go outside will involve the very great risk  of taking part in stories that are still taking shape.  Neither I nor anyone else knows how these stories will turn out,  since at this point they involve more blood than ink.  The whole purpose of the Bible, it seems to me,  is to convince people to set the written word down  in order to become living words in the world for God's sake.  For...

  I Am, And Living Mindfully The Conversation Elements From The Conversation There is much to learn from the Jews with whom we share the Old Testament. In a conversation with Benjamin D. Sommer, professor of Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary (NYC), he has this to say about the Jewish approach to Biblical interpretation and different viewpoints: ____________________ … in rabbinic literature argument is often considered something that we do for the sake of heaven, for the sake of God that is, disagreeing about exactly how to interpret God's will, that intellectual activity of disagreeing about, debating about, studying further, the interpretation of God's will, for us Jews, that's actually a form of worship. It's not only prayer that is a form of worship. It is very often study of sacred literature that is also a very important form of worship - a way of showing our loyalty and love and obedience of God in traditional Judaism generally. In Judaism, debating about ...

  Ek Is, En Bewustelik Leef Die Gesprek Elemente Uit Die Gesprek Ons kan baie leer by die Jode wat die Ou Testament met ons deel, veral t.o.v hul benadering wanneer daar verskil van mening is. In 'n gesprek met die skrywer, Rachel Held Evans rondom die tema  Unraveling and Re-raveling the Bible , sê sy die volgende hieroor: ____________________ So I did this year of Biblical womanhood [which turned into a book]… and the project was probably the first time I spent a good amount of time speaking with and studying Jewish interpretations of the text. [In the process] I got to know an Orthodox Jewish lady named Ahava who helped me with some of the weird stuff that I had to do through the year following all those laws from Hebrew Scripture. Just getting to know her and getting to know some Jewish interpreters and seeing the Bible from that perspective really resonated with the invitation into questioning, that is just at the at the heart of how they engage. Ahava’s husband is a rabb...

  Easter As Message  Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground,  dead to the world,  it is never any more than a grain of wheat.  But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over.  In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life.  But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.                                                             ‭‭John‬ ‭12:24-25‬ ‭(The Message)   Our Conversation Elements From Our Conversation There is death, destruction, grief, sighs and tears.... Scars of a war, Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb 2022 An old, hauntingly beautiful folk song from Ukraine  (Click on the link to listen) Plyve Kacha  The lyrics, translated into English:  A duck swims upon the Tysyna ...

Paying attention requires no equipment, no special clothes, no greens fees or personal trainers... All you need is a body on this earth, willing to notice where it is, trusting that something as small as a hazelnut can become an altar in this world.                                                                                                    Barbara Brown Taylor