It is said that Calvin Coolidge, or Silent Cal, the 30 th US president, didn’t work himself to a stanstill. Taking into account that he generally slept 11 hours a night, supplemented by daily naps and some three-month extended vacations, the conclusion that he worked a maximum of 4 and a half hours a day doesn’t seem too far-fetched. And the times he was in the Oval Office, he often pulled out the bottom drawer of his desk, put his feet into it and counted the cars passing by on Pennsylvania Avenue. When he passed away in 1933, Gertrude Stein reportedly remarked: “Coolidge dead? How can you tell?” In 2 Kings 6 we are told of another leader, King Jehoram of Israel. With his city under siege by the Syrian army and Samaria experiencing a terrible famine, he walks on the city wall. While doing so, he hears the horrific story of two mothers who started eating their children in an effort to stay alive. On hearing that he tear...
The Restory is a Retreat Centre nestled against Tafelkop, a singular mountain head near Wakkerstroom, South Africa. Here we live a simple life as contemplatives. It is a place of re-connection: with ourselves, people, Nature, Silence and Creativity. Our retreats are aimed at this. Our conversations, writing and art centre around the univocity of life. We need a place that reminds us that we are all one. The Restory hopes to be such a place and space.