The Restory Retreat Centre

  My Purpose The Conversation Elements From The Conversation Music In the song, the "plan" she gives God is a plea for an end. • She is not asking God for a new path, but she is giving God a proposal or a roadmap to end this chapter of suffering ("To close this affair"). • It is an act of surrender: she can no longer bear the weight of the past, so she reaches out and says to the Creator, as it were, "Here's how we can end this pain. Help me to end it." There is an irony in the lyrics. Sometimes the only "plan" we can form is to admit that we have run out of plans. By saying "I'm giving God a plan," she may be saying, "I've decided that this 'affair' with sorrow is over; now God, you have to do the rest to make it happen." It is a shift from passive victim to someone who sets a boundary. May you gradually, through discovery, come home to your purpose. With our love. George & Matilda

  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

  Joy In The Making Let's start with a short reflection that tries to express what today's topic is about. Perhaps you recognize yourself in it. There is a joy that does not shout. That does not wait for applause or stand proudly on a stage. That does not stumble over perfectionism or self-criticism. It is the gentle smile of someone who sits still and looks at something that came through their own hands— and is now alive. It is not self-pride. Rather, it is a sacred yes: an assent to the Word that created light, a participation in the Breath that lets everything be. It is not about achievement, but commitment. It is not even pride — it is reverence. When you give form to what has grown within you— a poem, a sketch, a loaf of bread, a word of comfort— then you experience that joy: not you as the origin of that creation, but as a friend of the Creator. And you whisper softly to yourself, like God on the seventh day: “It is good.” Matilda's joys George's The Conversation ...

  Meraki   The Conversation  Big apology! Meraki, even though it has all the characteristics of a Japanese word, is not a Japanese word. We discovered after our conversation that it is actually a Greek word. Elements From The Conversation  Music With all our love. George & Matilda

Maybe I'm exaggerating. But what's left of a good account if you can't stretch it? And somewhere in there is a kernel of truth, and the elements for a solution, if you listen carefully. With all the space we have, it feels as if I’m limited in movement. Here at Tafelkop it rains and rains and rains in summer. And if it's not raining, there's the mist. With the result that anything that can handle that much moisture, and the cold of our winters, thrives. Which is mainly the grass in general and Kikuyu in particular. Like a wave it rises around the orchard and the garden. Our mowed lawn ends against a wall of green. It is a weekly effort to hold back the tide. It is beautiful to behold, but it hampers movement. You feel like you’re going on an expedition just to reach the base of Tafelkop. It’s the same in whatever direction you venture. It’s a challenge for the dogs as well. They totally disappear in the abundant growth. Molly has developed a leaps and bounds style o...

The unfinished “The Adoration of the Magi” by Leonardo da Vinci (1480) I am slow.  I love to dawdle, look at this and that, get sidetracked, explore more and get lost in the detail.  This should not be confused with laziness. I’m really not lazy. I can work extremely hard, for long periods on end. I get a lot of things done; it just takes me longer than most. I am usually one step behind and not on schedule. I frustrate people who are efficient and fast. Of course it has its drawbacks and a negative side. It is not a very effective strategy if you want to pay the bills every month by producing a large number of things. My output, in terms of quantity, will never make me rich.  It often makes me feel guilty because judging by productivity, efficiency and time-is-money-standards I really do not make the grade. As I’ve said before, most of the time I feel out of step with culture and Western society, or to be more precise, that part of culture and s...

A small river we cross on the way to Newcastle. Photo by Matilda This time round I have been waiting very long for the spark. That tiny little flicker of a thing that sets the ready kindling alight, slowly warming my insides with ideas licking slowly higher and higher, until I can no longer contain myself. And start creating in a burst of red hot energy!  It is not a necessary ingredient in the life of an artist, I am told. One should create, write, sculpt whether you feel inspired or not. It comes with the doing. With the keeping at it. So I'm told and it has been my experience for the most. But there is a marked difference. If inspiration can be graded, I would have to say, the keep-at-it-and-it-comes-along variety has always been rather lukewarm for me personally. It does not seem to heat up much, but burns steadily and quietly, producing well... well, producing sellable products. But it hardly raises my pulse.   While I'm in the creative slow cooker I am ...

I found myself in a schoolroom  where I could not fail to see and hear things worth seeing and hearing - where I could not help getting my lesson - for my lesson came to me.                                                    Henry David Thoreau Did you know that a group of flamingos is called a flamboyance? I'm constantly surprised by this wonderful world we live in! Come to think of it, I assume a group of men is called a brilliance? George

When we started The Restory News as an e-mail newsletter in September 2011, we saw it as the taking root of a part of a dream we had. At that stage it was mainly the writing-about-it-part. The bigger dream that stimulated and still stimulates our writing, looks something like this: We want to promote conscious living, a life lived close to nature and the rhythms of the seasons, where you tap into your own creativity and apply it. It must be a quiet place where you get to know yourself, get in touch with that self and ultimately with God. “God in all things” must not be a mere concept but a guide to discovery, surprise and amazement – a way of life. Ultimately it is about tapping into the holy and the powerful that we believe is ever-present and waiting for us and not so much the creation of something new on our part. From experience we do not want to do something that requires over-complicated structures and ends up in a list of projects and activities that have to be main...