The Restory Retreat Centre

Sychronicity Follow-up The Conversation Elements From The Conversation Read:  Matilda's experiences with sunbirds Read:  My Hunchback Music It is good that adventure music has been composed - for migrating birds and for us. Even if it only serves to encourage us to go on more adventures, or to view our whole life as one.  Our wish for you: an experience of the "thin places".  With our love.  George & Matilda

Statue of St Kevin and the blackbird at Knock I recently came across the beautiful Celtic story of St Kevin and the Blackbird. When St Kevin prayed in his hut with arms outstretched, the room was so small that he had to put one arm through the window. One day, while praying in this manner, a blackbird came, landed on his palm and started to build a nest. St Kevin did not want to disturb the new life that was taking shape in his hand and remained in that position until the little blackbirds were hatched, raised and ready to fly away. Christine Valters-Paintner reflected on the story in the following poem St. Kevin and the Blackbird (after Seamus Heaney) Imagine being like Kevin, your grasping fist softens, fingers uncurl and palms open, rest upward, and the blackbird weaves twigs and straw and bits of string in the begging bowl of your hand, you feel the delicate weight of speckled blue orbs descend, and her feathered warmth settling in for a w...

St. John's Cross, Iona (Photo by Anne-Marie Ellis) Chant for  Samhain (Celtic New Year)  A year of beauty. A year of plenty. A year of planting. A year of harvest. A year of forests. A year of healing. A year of vision. A year of passion. A year of rebirth. A year of rebirth. This year may we renew the earth. Let it begin with each step we take. Let it begin with each change we make. Let it begin with each chain we break. And let it begin every time we awake. The Celtic spirituality is strongly underpinned by elements of Creation Centered spirituality. This is presenting itself more and more as I am discovering how nature and creation lie at the heart of what I could refer to as my soul's language. It might be a good idea to explore this further in my writing and I will definitely be back on this theme. I was delighted when I found this beautiful chant to be used on the eve of November 1. A couple of days late for the occasion, though,  for Novembe...