The Restory Retreat Centre

  Control   The Conversation Elements From The Conversation Music In our attempts to control everything, including God, and place it in predictable boxes and compartments, we lose far more than we gain. Our lives do not become as safe as we had hoped. It becomes sterile. A blessing originally written by Ruth Fox for students receiving degrees at Dickinson State University in America.  May God bless you with Discontent with easy answers, half-truths, superficial relationships, so that you will live from deep within your heart. May God bless you with Anger at injustice, oppression, abuse, and exploitation of people, so that you will work for justice, equality, and peace. May God bless you with Tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you will reach out your hand to comfort them and to change their pain to joy. May God bless you with the Foolishness to think you can make a difference in this world, so that you will do the things wh...

A Thousand Hands The Conversation Elements From The Conversation ~ ❖ ~ "Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative [or creation] there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.  All sorts of things occur to help one that would otherwise never have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man would have believed would have come his way." W.H. Murray, Scottish Explorer ~ ❖ ~ Cause of Death Exhibition Ariana being mesmerized  Music When you do not try frantically to control everything, give yourself over to flow and be open to the unexpected, you can sing with Ian McKellen. Ian McKellen doesn't care who the person is he is singing with, just as long as he can d...

  Adventure ”...for we live by faith, not by sight.“ ‭‭2 Cor 5‬:‭7‬                                                             ‭ The Conversation  Elements From The Conversation  Music Enjoy the adventure!  George & Matilda

   Liminal Space   The Conversation Elements From The Conversation  Music Thinking of each of you on your journey. Sending much love.  George en Matilda

"Sometimes your life comes into focus one frame at a time."                                                                                         From the movie The Majestic Acts 8 has always fascinated me. That part that tells of the turn of events immediately following the death of Stephen, with a young Saul standing and watching to the side, holding the coats of those busy throwing stones. After that tragic event the young church scatters all over the Roman Empire and one of the late Stephen’s companions, Philip ends up in a Samaritan city. The Samaritans, despised by the Jews and low down on the social ladder, are very receptive to Philip’s message. To such an extent that the church leaders in Jerusalem come down to witness this success story ...

The road leading to Barrowfield. Photograph by Ralie du Preez At one stage, while renovating our bathroom, we had no bath, basin or shower. After a day’s work we took our toiletries, went over to Johan and Debbie, our neighbours, and cleaned up. One evening I washed myself in a bucket under the stars. For outsiders it might have looked as if everything was in a shambles with little hope of a decent result or at least a returning order. All we needed was a sign reading, “Under Construction”.  Spiritually I have use for such a sign as well. I am under construction. For years now, I haven’t found nourishment in business as usual where religion was concerned. All the traditional pillars that held that roof in place became stumbling blocks for me instead. I experienced it as being: - sentimental, - fear-based,  - rooted in a sense of merit despite the lip service given to terms like grace and the love of God,  - sepa...

Sometimes life asks the impossible of us: like packing up and moving from a place where you have lived for many decades of your life; emigrating; losing a life partner to an early death, a loved one to suicide. Sometimes, as in the case of a very dear friend of mine, it asks that you accompany your eighteen year old son through the dark valleys of chemotherapy and radiation in a fight against cancer; or it asks that you be that young man fighting this battle. It is hard to stand at the edge of such a situation and to not really know how to help. We always feel that we should somehow make it better. We somehow feel that the difficult things should be put behind us as soon as possible, or be avoided at all costs. We feel that the situations life puts us in and where we suffer pain or hardship = wrong or even evil. We pray for deliverance, for healing, for the miracle that will make everything better. But all around us life is happening and it is messy. It is mostly hard. We wer...

The darkness is still with us, O Lord.  You are still hidden  and the world which you have made does not want to know   you or receive you... You are still the hidden child in a  world grown old... You are still obscured by the veils of this  world's history,  you are still destined not to be acknowledged  in the scandal of your death on the cross... But I, O hidden  Lord of all things, boldly affirm my faith in you.  In confessing you, I take my stand with you...  If I make this avowal of faith, it must pierce the depths of  my heart like a sword,  I must bend my knee  before you, saying,  I must alter my life. I have still to become a Christian. ~Karl Rahner,   Prayers for Meditation