Photograph by Michael Kenna “The discipline of the heart makes us stand in the presence of God with all we have and are; our fears and anxieties, our guilt and shame, our sexual fantasies, our greed and anger, our joys, successes, aspirations and hopes, our reflections, dreams and mental wanderings, and most of all our people, family, friends and enemies – in short all that makes us who we are… We tend to present to God only those parts of ourselves with which we feel relatively comfortable and which we think will invoke a positive response. Thus our prayer becomes very selective, narrow and unbalanced. And not just our prayer, but also our self-knowledge, because by behaving as strangers before God we become strangers to ourselves.” ...
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.