And The Saga Continues...

OK, so ready for another dose of kitty-cat magic and bonkers coincidences? If so, you're in the right place!

As most of you know (and if you don't, have a quick read of my last 2 posts) our darling Mishka died almost two weeks ago, just a couple of months after our gorgeous Tez passed away, and once again, Mike and I found ourselves wondering what to do for the best with regards getting another kitten. Ten-week-old Bez's hyper giddiness and his determination to be best friends forever and play all day long with his 10 year old sister, Bethany, was not going down at all well with her, so we thought that another kitten might be a good playmate for Bez, and would let Bethany off the hook somewhat. Still, we were hesitant...would it upset Bethany even more if she suddenly had yet another kitten to contend with? After all, the poor little sweetheart had gone through so much just recently...losing two brothers and a sister with whom she had lived for most of her life, in the space of two years. We had no idea what to do, so took the only sensible course of action and handed the whole situation over to the Tao to sort out. If it was meant to be, we trusted we would be given a sign, or that a kitten would somehow just find us.

I was discussing all this on Wednesday with my lovely friend, Alison and her equally lovely mum. Alison is as besotted with cats as I am, and shares her home with six of them, one of whom has been poorly for the last couple of weeks, so Alison had made an appointment to take her to the vets on Friday morning...and that appointment ended up completely changing my life!

Alison rang me from the vets to tell me that the vet herself had found an abandoned kitten who now needed a home. He was a gorgeous, tiny tabby and was probably only five or six weeks old. Hmmm...was I saying something about being given a sign? It really couldn't have been any clearer, could it?

Needless to say, Mike and I didn't hesitate and Alison brought him to us straight from the vets. To say we fell instantly in love with him would be an understatement, but our feelings for him paled into insignificance compared to Bez's. He was over the moon to see his baby brother (who we named Chomsky) and immediately pulled the tiny tot to him to give him a bath. It was like he'd been waiting for him, and they'd known each other for ever...which perhaps they have! They are inseparable and, as I write this, they're cuddled up together on the sofa fast asleep. The jury is still out on Bethany - she is having nothing to do with such silly kitten behaviour, but there has been no hissing and she definitely seems happier in herself.

So, yet again, I am bowled over at the sheer magic of it all; if I hadn't had that very conversation with Alison two days before, and if her beautiful cat, Aura, hadn't been off-colour and needed to go to the very vet who happened to find an abandoned kitten (strangely, right outside our favourite restaurant here on Ibiza where Mike and I had planned to have lunch with a friend the same day as Chomsky was found, but didn't because our friend had to cancel at the last minute), then we would never have even known of his existence. And more to the point, if Mishka hadn't left us when she did, there would be no way that Chomsky would be in our lives right now.

It's like everything was just shunted into place in a way we could never have orchestrated, which leaves me in no doubt that all of this - the heartbreak and the joy - was all absolutely meant to be and reiterates the belief I expressed in my earlier blogs... that no matter what happens, no matter how "bad" things seem at the time, there is always a higher purpose. Everything happens for a reason. Fact.

And if this isn't proof of it, I don't know what is. Believe me, whatever is going on in your life, it's all unfolding perfectly, even if it doesn't seem so at the time. Trust that and keep the faith.

Always.

Be ready for miracles...they are on their way :)

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. ;)