The Restory Retreat Centre

  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...

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

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...

Synchronicity  The Conversation Elements From The Conversation Detail: The Creation Of Adam, by Michelangelo  Reporting On A Move Yes, we're still packing and have taken more furniture and paintings to Tafelkop.  An empty house isn't much to show, though. The living room, having changed from warm to bare, remains the best barometer of the process. In the background the pantry is visible through the door opening. It has been turned into a store room as well. Music The theme of this month's music is saying goodbye, moving on, ending something, new beginnings.  Adventure is an element of that as well, while synchronicity forms part of the adventure. This week's music from the Japanese duo, Lullatone, comes from their album,  Soundtracks For Everyday Adventures . Just right under the circumstances. With love.    George & Matilda 

My mother's tiny art work. Photo by Matilda Mother’s Day in South Africa. This morning, being a mother and all, I granted myself an extra half an hour of lying in bed. I lay thinking about my children, all three of them more than a four hours’ drive from us. I felt like thanking them for being the ones to bring me to motherhood. I left it at that, knowing that they will all call during the day and make this a special day, even though we have never gone overboard with this kind of commemoration. I then opened my journal as I do most every morning. From between the pages and into my lap fell a tiny artwork. A small cameo of lacey leaves and flowers set into a small card. The artist: my mother. How did it get there? I honestly cannot remember putting it there. Maybe during the move it had surfaced somewhere and needed to be kept safe in order to later add it to the collection I have of my mother’s art work. The synchronicity of it though made me sit up and take notice. Since she...

The sunset of 19 December 2013 at Barrowfield, exactly one month since our move. On February 9, 1922, Rainer Maria Rilke writes to his publisher Anton Kippenberg on completion of his book, Duino Elegies, which took him ten years. "Dear friend, now at last I can breathe. Everything is doable now. For this was huge beyond imagining... That I survived it! That I survived it. Enough. It is here." I read this in a book of daily readings, A Year with Rilke, on this day, the 20th of December. It is exactly one month since we moved to Barrowfield in Wakkerstroom.  It therefore seems no coincidence. We feel pretty much the same. Though we don't have a book to show(yet) and there is still a lot to do, it somehow feels doable in the light of what has been achieved. Up till now and for the past year, we could only focus on the task of getting here with all its complex logistics. That we survived it. Enough. We are here. What next? We don't exactly know. Ma...

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...

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...

Contemplative Photograph by Maxine Evans On this spiritual journey, one becomes more accustomed to synchronicity. However, it doesn’t diminish the thrill every time it occurs.  On this very morning that Matilda posted Lessons in Sunbirdish (3) , I read this meditation by Richard Rohr, taken from his series on Following the mystics through the narrow gate. Seeing God in all things. We needed this affirmation this morning. We were talking about Matilda’s posts on the sunbirds and we were asking ourselves: “Aren’t we reading too much into this? Isn’t it merely a matter of wishful thinking?” Apparently we’re not seeing enough! Some Effects of Mystical (“Experiential”) Encounter After the first effects of enlargement, connection, or union, and some degree of emancipation, mystical experiences lead to a kind of foundational optimism . You would usually call it hope. You wonder where it comes from, especially in the middle of all the terrible things that are happen...

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...