The Restory Retreat Centre

    Loneliness On The Journey   The Conversation  Elements From The Conversation  Music The video of the 4 year old Rylyn Clark who, during the Corona pandemic in 2020, sang Bob Marley's Three Little Birds , touched people deeply. We've chosen it as music for this week's post, not to indicate that loneliness is a trivial issue that can be addressed with a ""Don't worry, everything will be alright." With the same compassion of a little Rylyn we want to reach out over distance, connect, and provide some comfort. Rylyn's mother gave some background, shortly after the video started to circulate on the internet.  She regularly sang Three Little Birds as a lullaby t o him when tucking him in at night. During the pandemic he was missing his Nana, grandfather and the connection with the rest of the extended family terribly,  so he sang the lullaby that gave him such comfort to them. They sent it to the family members, who love and cherish him … and then the w...

We have found that a very handy tool to use in meditation or any quiet practice is drawings. It helps to free us from the tyranny of the rational mind and leads to unexpected insight and discoveries, literally something not being thought of. You can make your own drawings or experiment with doodles. The use of existing drawings or intricate designed patterns is another option. There are lovely mandalas (literally meaning “circle”) available on the internet that can be downloaded or printed. At our recent introductory retreat into mindfulness, we had copies of mandalas available for retreatants to choose from should they wish to use it in their meditation sessions. For the uninformed it might have looked like pages from a child’s colouring book lying scattered on the table. After you’ve chosen your mandala or mandalas (we suggested that they take two each at this specific retreat) it is totally up to you to use it or discard it. And should you decide to use it the ways in which...