The Restory Retreat Centre

Sychronicity Follow-up The Conversation Elements From The Conversation Read:  Matilda's experiences with sunbirds Read:  My Hunchback Music It is good that adventure music has been composed - for migrating birds and for us. Even if it only serves to encourage us to go on more adventures, or to view our whole life as one.  Our wish for you: an experience of the "thin places".  With our love.  George & Matilda

  Your Dialect "What about you? Who do you say I am?"                                                       Matthew 16:15 The Conversation Elements From The Conversation Grant, Lord, that I may know myself that I may know thee.                                                                                                                          St Augustine Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God.                                 ...

  Never talk away the magic.                                                             Danish saying “And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”                                                         Roald Dahl Matilda has her sunbird (See Les...

This morning, without deciding upon it formally, Mily and I took it reaaally easy and had a snuggle-in. Outside it seemed rather overcast and gloomy: perfect cuddle weather. She curled onto my lap, covering my first and second chakras with her silken body, while I lay dozing on my back. She later moved to where the sun started trickling onto the corner of the bed while I sat writing about the richness of this simple indulgence and tried drawing her catness in R-mode like I am being taught in Art class at the moment.        Then I spent time planning a week of personal treats. Read on, this gets even more ridiculously decadent. In my defence, I have to say that I am under orders to do so. (See Tasks of Chapter 11 of Julia Cameron’s Artist’s way). I struggle with especially this: treating my inner child, the true artist in me, to the things I need to fill my creative well. The reason, always, is a feeling of guilt. Guilt because there's a furrow seemingly per...

I simply cannot resist running for my camera as luscious May parades her golden hues wherever I go. The potted lemon and the huge mulberry in my back yard are vying for my attention, each glorious in her own right. In a much loved fruit bowl, some ruby grapefruit (a gift from MaTshepo, the rain harvester who grows them organically and with only rain water as irrigation) glows against the warm wood of the table. At a recent drumming circle (our first) a fire dancer had me trying new settings with my camera, it being quite a challenge to capture the magical mood of the fiery movements. I seem to be soaked in yellow. Happy, sunny Yellow! Which, according to my copy of The healing powers of Chromotherapy (using colours to cure diseases) by Hari Om Gupta, "represents intelligence, wisdom and loyalty. Yellow has been associated with the divine symbols of creation since time immemorial." I'm not too sure what that implies, but it makes me feel happy and hopeful, even thou...

As in all languages, grammar also applies to Sunbirdish. I reflect on some of the rules, seeking clarity for myself as well as for anybody who is learning the ropes on their very own God dialect. I am sure that there will be vast differences, but also a degree of congruity and this might be helpful to other "birders" out there. Also, to make it quite clear: I did not create these, but make the deductions by reflection and listening as the encounters occur. The ABC: Awareness is the key to initially becoming aware of a conversation between God and myself and then to try to not miss a "word" by being absent minded going about my life. There is nothing supernatural about any of the sunbird encounters. They were born of such ordinary scenarios that I could have missed all or any of them at the blink of an eye. In this, living consciously, is the challenge and the adventure. I have to say that, thankfully, to not have had the sunbird experiences will not have ...

In writing about my experiences with sunbirds, I considered starting with the most recent encounter first, a little like the Lord of the Rings films. As far as I can tell it started somewhere in the middle of the very long tale and then moved hither and thither, with the film of the prelude, The Hobbit, only very recently being made and released. But I'm glad I didn't. In reliving the experiences in the sequence that it had happened, I am reminded of the subtlety with which I was led deeper and deeper into the analogy. It became rich with symbolism and has a luminality that cannot be explained rationally, and yet can also not be reasoned away. In sharing it in this way, I am convinced anew that we are not alone on this journey in life. We are safe and we are loved even more than we can ever fathom. To get the full story up till now, please see posts: Lessons in Sunbirdish (1) Lessons in Sunbirdish (2) Lessons in Sunbirdish (3)  (I am told it is not boring reading) When...

I am recounting my extraordinary experiences with sunbirds, which I have come to see as my personal harbingers of hope and divine support. Please read the previous two posts,  Lessons in Sunbirdish 1  and  Lessons in Sunbirdish 2   if you wish to get the bigger picture. In preparing to exhibit at the Grahamstown Fesitval in July last year, I made a sculpture depicting two hands from which a sunbird grows out of and which seems to be on the verge of taking flight. I wanted to show something of the artist's ability to create beauty and to allow it to venture into the world. It always feels like such a gamble to put one's work out on display and I had a hard time fighting my demons while working on the nine pieces that would make out our exhibition. Maybe it was because it would be the first time that my work would be on public display at a major national festival frequented by thousands of visitors. My inner artist was running scared. We wrote about our experie...

Photograph taken by Matilda in 2011 I started recounting my experiences with sunbirds in the post Lessons (1)  and related how I felt them to be divine messengers of hope to me. After the sunbird trusted me to help it to safety I wondered whether I dared to believe that it was an analogy I could make my own: if a wild bird trusted me to help it out of a tight spot, then surely I could count on deliverance if I found myself in difficulty? I only have to trust the "finger" being held for me and get onto it. Some part of me thought it to be a somewhat literal interpretation of what seemed to be a rather odd and isolated event. But it also made me feel safe.  After my divorce I moved into a tiny cottage quite close to where I have been living for the 23 years of my marriage. My youngest son (fresh into his teens) wasn’t yet ready to leave the farm where he was born to come and live with me and I wanted to be close by to get him to and from school everyday. The ...