The Restory Retreat Centre

  Thoughts Pried Loose By A Birthday Picnic against Tafelkop on my birthday. The Conversation Elements From The Conversation ` Music This past year, I have heard Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, properly for the first time. It touches me deeply and I've caught myself listening to it often. The older I get, the more I become aware of my clumsy efforts and tattered plans being carried by an infinite Gentleness.  With our love. George & Matilda

Sometimes On A Journey....   The Conversation Elements From The Conversation Tastings of....... The Karoo Barrydale in the Little Karoo Cape Town and Simon's Town  Back at Tafelkop Music   With all our love. And deep gratitude for the love we receive.  George & Matilda  

  Enthusiastic God The Conversation  Elements From The Conversation  George gets his birthday card and itinerary in one, in bed. Music One does not really expect it from him, but just something playful and light from Andrea Bocelli. May the strength of the wind  and the light of the sun, The softness of the rain  and the mystery of the moon  Reach you and fill you. May beauty delight you  and happiness uplift you,  May wonder fulfill you  and love surround you. May your step be steady  and your arm be strong. May your heart be peaceful  and your word be true. May you seek to learn,  may you learn to live,  May you live to love,  and may you love ~ always.       Celtic Blessing                                                         With our love. George & Matild...

More About George If I want to tell more about myself, the very best might be to just start by saying "I love..." and then list things that I love. So: I love...... ....Tafelkop. The big world of which I am a part, silence and to walk. The Conversation ...time spent with my M. Where we talk for long stretches, and laugh, or are just quiet together for long periods of time. Elements From The Conversation ....our granddaughter, Ariana. Who loves books very much and keeps asking: "Oupa, tell me a silly story!" ....books. And dogs. And cats. And tea. ....a good conversation. Sculpting and woodwork. To write. ....poems. More so by the day. Basically impossible to pick a single one, but on my birthday, this one from Billy Collins. It talks about things one thinks about at 60. Design I pour a coating of salt on the table and make a circle in it with my finger. This is the cycle of life I say to no one. This is the wheel of fortune, the Arctic Circle. This is the ring of Ke...

  More About Matilda The Conversation Elements From The Conversation The house It grows larger wall after wall sliding  on some miraculous arrangement of panels, blond and weightless as balsa, making space for windows, alcoves, more rooms, stairways and passages, all bathed in light,with here and there the green flower of a tree, vines, streams casually breaking through- what a change  from the cramped  room at the centre where I began, where i crouched and was safe, but could hardly breathe! Day after day I labour at it; night after night I keep going- I'm clearing new ground I'm lugging boards I'm measuring, I'm hanging sheets of glass I'm nailing down the hardwoods The thresholds- I'm hinging the doors- Once they are up they will lift their easy latches, they will open like wings. Mary Oliver                                                  ...

The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.”                                                                                              - Robert Frost On my 50th birthday, I am sitting on a low stone wall next to Matilda and Jan Badenhorst. It is late afternoon in the Luneburg valley, with the sun low in our backs. Jan is busy telling us about his horses in his gentle, calm voice. The beautiful stallion strides past us, all power and elegance. Photograph by Matilda Clifford In the card Matilda gave me early that morning she quoted Wendell Berry: And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long,  but only by a spiritual journey,  a journey of one inch, ...

I recently discovered this list by Tony Schwartz, CEO of The Energy Project . He wrote it on the 1st of May this year and it is so full of simple solid wisdom that I really want to share it. I also want to live it. Tomorrow is my birthday — always an opportunity for reflection, but especially this time. For several weeks now, I've been thinking about what I've learned during the past six decades that really matters. Here's a first pass: 1. The more we know about ourselves, the more power we have to behave better.  Humility is underrated. We each have an infinite capacity for self-deception — countless unconscious ways we protect ourselves from pain, uncertainty, and responsibility — often at the expense of others and of ourselves. Endless introspection can turn into self-indulgence, but deepening self-awareness is essential to freeing ourselves from our reactive, habitual behaviors. 2. Notice the good.  We each carry an evolutionary predisposition to dwell on what...