The Magic of Ibiza

I realised this morning that, in all the time I´ve had this blog entitled “Healing & Light from the White Isle”, I´ve never actually written a piece about the White Isle herself. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that is about to change... :)

I say “herself” because, quite simply, that´s how I view Ibiza – as female energy. Stepping off the plane when we arrived for our first holiday here, ten years ago, it was like I could feel her wrap her arms around me and I immediately felt safe and nurtured somehow. I´d no idea, of course, back then what this all meant; that it was, in fact, the first clue that I would eventually make this my home – I just knew it felt nice and kind of special, and didn´t give it much further thought than that. Space and Privilege were calling, after all!

Numerous clubbing holidays over the course of the next few years ensued, but even so, amidst the bedlam and the haze, there was a quiet little voice whispering to us – both me and my hubby – and eventually, we started to give serious consideration to moving to Ibiza.

And that´s when things got really weird.

Ibiza, or rather Es Vedra, the mysterious, majestic island rearing out of the sea off the south coast, is the third most magnetic spot on the planet and we certainly seemed to be feeling its pull, but to upsticks and move? Hubby had a senior job with a large multi-national, I worked full-time, we had a nice house, good standard of living, hectic social life and four cats. It seemed like an impossible pipe-dream, irresponsible even, but as soon as we faced the fact that we wanted to move, it seemed the entire universe conspired to make it happen and our life suddenly turned into something resembling a far-fetched movie with an implausible and contrived plot-line. There was no way we could have imagined or orchestrated events to transpire the way they did.

Hubby was offered a voluntary redundancy package that we would have never dared dream possible. To our astonishment, our house, when we had it valued, was worth three times the amount we´d paid for it and the day before we were due to put it on the market, a lady turned up on the doorstep selling raffle tickets for the village gala, of all things. We started chatting and, for some reason, ended up telling her about our plans to move. It turned out she was looking to buy a house in our village, so she had a look around and made us an offer there and then. Neither estate agents nor their fees were necessary!

Things had happened so quickly that found ourselves in the tricky position of having sold our house, without having found accommodation on Ibiza. The simplest solution seemed to be to rent a house in the UK while we were looking, but all the properties available to rent were for a minimum of 12 months (we wanted a 6 month contract) and none of them allowed pets. Just as time was running out and we were starting to get desperate, we stumbled across a letting agent we´d somehow missed before. We explained our situation and the agent, with a gasp, said “oh, what a coincidence”. Just the day before, a man had put his house up to rent with her which, due to his personal circumstances, he only wanted to rent out for 6 months, and he worked with animals so she was sure the cats would be no problem. In fact, the house was the only one on her records with a cat flap!

Once again, it felt like the universe and Ibiza were smiling on our plans. We managed to find the perfect house on Ibiza with little fuss and set a date for the big move. Now the only thing troubling us was transporting our four spoiled-rotten and totally adored cats to Ibiza. Getting ourselves there was a piece of cake compared to shipping animals and the more we looked into it, the more of a logistical nightmare it appeared to be. Then, a couple of months after we´d moved into our rented house, the owner – who we had never met before, all dealings having been carried out through the letting agent – called round. I found myself in floods of grateful tears when he mentioned, in passing, what he did for a living. He was the Managing Director of a freight company...who specialised in shipping pets abroad!! Problem solved – he himself collected our fur-babies and got them safely onto a plane to follow us out.

This all happened four years ago and to this day, I continue to marvel and chuckle at the magic of it all. I feel blessed that I am able now to live my life on this beautiful island, pursuing my creative dreams. Instead of rushing and stressing, working hard for someone else and frantically cramming in every social event we thought we couldn´t possibly miss, simplifying our lives in this way has, in fact, led us to the bliss we were always chasing.

But it hasn´t all been smooth sailing – far from it. I said before that Ibiza has a nurturing and protecting energy...but she is also tough as old boots! For me, I feel that she´s saying, “well, all right then, come and live here, but I have some things to teach you. Are you ready for that?” Erm...I suppose so. Lessons have abounded in the time I´ve been here – some fairly straightforward and easy to take on board, some absolutely not. I view Ibiza´s main lesson to me – which I now understand is a gift of gigantic proportions – as showing me all things and all people, including myself, in our true colours to see how I will handle it. A little bit shakily, it has to be said, on the occasions when the truth turns out to be startlingly at odds with what I´d previously assumed to be the case. Tough lessons, tough love, but I´ll tell you something – I wouldn´t have missed out on a single one of them.

It´s felt nice to write about this and to actually express to the world via the internet (or at least to anyone still reading these ramblings) my gratitude to the Tao of Ibiza and to share what is clearly the most important lesson for us all here. The power of positive intention, followed by simply letting go and trusting. When something is right, and is for our highest and greater good, then all we have to do is state it clearly, ask for help & sit back to allow the magic in.

Give it a go...who knows where you might end up. ;)