The Restory Retreat Centre

We’re having a bumper Summer season. Wonderful rains cause all the rivulets to gush and gurgle like they haven’t for three consecutive seasons. It is lush and green and simply gorgeous everywhere around us. Cattle shine like polished stones where they lie ruminating in the pastures amongst wildflowers and frolicking calves. It’s the way I’ve always imagined heaven would look like. And we have swallows. Hundreds of tiny fighter pilots that descend on us every morning, swooping and diving just above the lawn. We also have flies. Hordes of them, caused by a combination of factors: a cattle feeding lot that was recently started close by, very high temperatures and all this rain. We’re doing everything we can to handle the problem without resorting to chemical means: burners with peppermint and citronella oil work well to repel the pesky things inside our home. Outside we have bags of flybait that fill up alarmingly quickly. But still, it is not enough. Walking or sitting...

Dressed to go frogging. Photo G.Angus This weekend, quite unexpectedly, gave us ample opportunity to practice two of the exercises prescribed by our Living School curriculum: that of Audio and Visio Divina. Derived from the traditional Benedictine practice of Lexio Divina, which translates to divine reading, this simply means to open yourself up to the experience of either reading, hearing or seeing, letting go of your own agendas and ideas and allowing God to speak into your innermost being through the experience you are having. On Friday evening we went frogging in the wetlands in Wakkerstroom with a group of amphibian and reptile conservationists. There we were, at nightfall, kitted out in mud boots, rain jackets and head lamps, assigned to find and document frogs in the wetlands and surrounding grassland. Already they were starting to call as we made our way down to the water. It was heavily overcast and beautiful. Then two huge birds came into sight, adding there primeva...

Our walled vegetable garden at the beginning of Spring. Photo by Matilda Angus To take a spade, or spading fork on a crisp fall day and without undue haste or backbreaking effort to turn over slice after slice of sweet-smelling earth can bring rich rewards to the gardener who fully understands just what he is accomplishing.    - T.H Everett (American landscaper) Being in the Southern hemisphere, Spring has just sprung. Our young Zulu gardener, Skhumbuzo, has turned over the beds and worked in some well-rotted compost and cows manure. We've sown carrots, radishes, four types of beans, pumpkins, courgettes, coriander, basil and ox heart tomatoes. Skhumbuzo, the proud gardener. The last of the winter onions and carrots are ready to harvest and will make way for seedlings of aubergine, spinach, beetroot, peppers and a new batch of onions.  This year we plan to start laying out the orchard which will be adjacent to the vegetable garden. Half a doze...

 This weekend past is one of those we will talk about in future, stating the date, and reminiscing on how extraordinary and special it was.     We knew up ahead that the unusually hot Spring days would be countered by a severe cold front that was moving in from the Southern part of the country and which would be reaching us around Saturday afternoon.   Snow was being predicted for the higher parts of the country and this would send icy winds our way. We were also looking forward to a family visit and felt comforted in the knowledge that the old stone house would keep us cosy and warm as we shared time together.      Naturally, a menu was planned with all of this in mind. I had pampering in mind, Grandma style: -               -  A vegetarian pasta with hot lemongrass tea for Saturday lunch -              ...

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 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   

Fairy food in the making. Photo by Matilda Angus Some years ago, I bought myself a magical book: Margaret Robert's book, Edible and Medicinal Flowers. It gives me endless pleasure to page through it and read that even day lilies, tulips and yucca flowers are edible! Imagine that! Imagine serving your family a Day Lily stir fry or Hollyhock scones. Reading the recipes makes me feel like a fairy in a Spring garden, a little lightheaded and delirious like a pollen-laden bee. Now nothing announces Spring quite like the fragrant purple cascade of a Wisteria climber. And, like Spring and sunbirds, it's swift evanescence makes it even more important to somehow capture something of the sweet glory before it fades. To my delight I found a couple of recipes using Wisteria flowers in my fairy book! One being a recipe for Wisteria fritters* which has become part of my Spring celebrations. This year I could share it with retreat goers at two retreats before it started fading. They...

Photograph of a free flow artwork Matilda Angus What if creativity is NOT about being able to draw or paint or sculpt? What if it is about cultivating a way of seeing what is already there? What if it is about being a unique channel for the free flow of endless possibilities?  Come explore this possibility at the Creativity Retreat to be held 22 to 24 May 2014. For more information go to  Kreatiwiteits-retreat Dates at   Retreat Calender Other retreat options at  Retreats Come play! Matilda

Me in inner child mode, discovering the berries of the cotoneasters.  Photograph by Sonja Hindley When Hanna used words like curiosity, openness, an attitude of wonder and humility to unlock the door to contemplative photography, my inner child sat up and took notice. Somehow, even though I've done my bit of reading up on the subject, I didn't make the connection. In anticipating my first hands-on encounter with contemplative photography during our weekend retreat, I imagined myself sitting somewhere very beautiful, keeping very still and being very serious as every now and again I serenely lift my camera to capture a very tranquil scene. Not so. We were invited to play! And so I did. Trying to keep in mind to wait for the image to be given rather than trying to capture or take or shoot one. How aggressive that sounds! I frolicked to my heart's content. Through my camera I witnessed the sun rising and painting everything in shades of red and gold, discovered the ...

Happy hands. Photo by George Angus It’s not that I don’t want to write. I had a resolution at the start of the year to write every day, even if just for 15 minutes. Because I love it and I know that it has to be practised if it is to deliver the goods. Like my sporadic Pilates exercises, it does me good, making me feel focused and balanced, but sadly, both of these I neglect, to my own detriment.  I wake up every day planning to do my bit and write a blog post about the many subjects floating around in my head. After my hour of meditation, journal writing and Pilates (if at all), I get dressed and prepare our breakfast fruit bowl. Then make the bed, maybe start on the laundry if it’s laundry day, or start the yogurt if it's a milk day. We have a cup of coffee and discuss the day ahead.  “I’m going to try and write some”, I often venture. But first I must go down to the vegetable garden and see if the carrots are up/the beds need watering/the tomatoes or beans need...

Photograph by Matilda Angus In a recent post on The Restory Retreat Centre’s facebook page Matilda mentioned me cutting the lawn around the house with a tractor and slasher. During a very good rainy season it has to be done weekly. In dry years like the current one it is done once in two or three weeks. Aesthetically it keeps the yard neat, but on a practical level it also serves as a buffer around the house against snakes and other creatures. With grass touching the window sills, the wild will literally be on our doorstep. This cutting exercise is indeed prime thinking time. While busy doing it last week I thought of all things about grass. Despite the validity of the aesthetics and safety factors, there are times when I feel as if I’m betraying some primal element of our lifestyle here at Barrowfield while busy with the tractor and slasher. Gerard Manley Hopkins advised, “Leave the wildness and wet” and here I am actively busy not leaving it. To rub salt in the wounds I recent...

 The regal Crowned Eagle photographed by Erich Lamprecht. Ever since the Sunbirds* I take birds seriously. Especially if they pay me a surprise visit. So when a Crowned Eagle granted us a fifteen minute audience by settling in a tree no more than a 150m from us, I intuited that it was of some importance. As is often the case, I didn’t immediately know what to make of it. I was aware only of feeling noticed and nurtured by the mere presence of this magnificent bird sitting quite peacefully in full sight. Last week we were on a short and belated honeymoon in as near a perfect setting as we could ever hope for: we spent it at the holiday cottage of our friends Pieter and Linda in a lush nature reserve close to Groblersdal. All through the week we were treated to sounds and sightings of the abundant bird life we are familiar with in this area with its unique eco-environment of  high cliffs, streams and indigenous forest. A pair of Paradise flycatchers e...

Barrowfield night sky Photograph by Frans Marais On settling here at Barrowfield, there were quite a few boxes that were on our initial wish list that we could mark off: silence –check; nature –check; workshops – check; beauty – check; gardening – check; definite change of seasons - check. These were all elements that we regarded as important when we started searching for a place to establish The Restory. Often based more on instinct than knowledge, we knew these things to be important factors in helping people to get in touch with God, themselves and life in general. Nothing mind-blowing or extreme. Actually very simple, but also very basic to being human living on this earth. In the years preceding our eventual scouting and exploring I often talked to Matilda about another element on the wish list as well – darkness. I often said to her: “Wouldn’t it be nice to live somewhere that is absolutely dark when you switch off your light at night.” Once, on travelling at night fro...

Images source: Kintsugigifts.com Ring the bell that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack, a crack in everything That’s where the light comes in                                                                                Leonard Cohen I know nothing, except what everyone knows – If there when Grace dances, I should dance.                                                                             W. H. Auden And God showed me that sin will be no shame, but somehow honor for humanity….. God’s goodness...

Poppy outside my window Photo by Matilda Today I'm going to start living like a monk not allowing the god Critic to dictate my song but to hear the gentle call of the Bird God, saying "Look outside your window! There's a second poppy blooming." It has exploded, pink shrapnel hanging in tatters from its detonating core. Another little bomb sits waiting to shake my world with a colour explosion. Being monk I will tend the plants that exploded like an orgasm. Taking deep delight in the birth of its seed and the beauty of its short life. Being a monk I will look out for love letters all day long, Listen for the Lover's song and stand naked and trembling for a touch, a soft wind hand stroking my face. I will explode like the pink poppy and bloom under this Spring Sun. Matilda

I have had one of my poems and quotes-series experiences again. Where all of a sudden I encounter poems and quotations on the same theme within days of each other. Usually it is an indication that I should take notice, or that I should pass it on. And so I do. The theme that announced itself again this time around is the sacredness or holiness of ordinary everyday objects. One of my favourite subjects and definitely not new. But there must be a reason these words introduced themselves now. I share them gladly. What if our religion was each other If our practice was our life If prayer, our words What if the temple was the Earth If forests were our church If holy water--the rivers, lakes, and ocean What if meditation was our relationships If the teacher was life If wisdom was self-knowledge If love was the center of our being.                                       ...

The Great Wave off Kanagawa - Painting by Katsushika Hokusai Hokusai says look carefully. He says pay attention, notice. He says keep looking, stay curious. He says there is no end to seeing. He says look forward to getting old He says keep changing, you just get more who you really are. He says get stuck, accept it, repeat yourself as long as it’s interesting. He says keep doing what you love. He says keep praying. He says every one of us is a child, every one of us is ancient, every one of us has a body. He says every one of us is frightened. He says every one of us has to find a way to live with fear. He says everything is alive – shells, buildings, people, fish, mountains, trees, wood is alive. Water is alive. Everything has its own life. Everything lives inside us. He says live with the world inside you. He says it doesn’t matter if you draw, or write books. It doesn’t matter if you saw wood, or catch fish. It doesn’t matter if you sit at...