The most beautiful rain of the year

(PORTUGUÊS) (NEDERLANDS)

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Not a white Christmas, but a grey and wet one. Just after the farmers, farmer’s wives and families and friends brought in the olives a week ago, it started raining and kept on raining. The gods are in our good graces. It is exactly the right moment and the most ideal rain for nature. A dense curtain of drops that only opens now and then. There are gusts of wind.

I almost think I am in Holland, were it not for the fact that the views here are so different from those in the Haagse Bos, where I always bumped into someone, also walking the dog. That never happens here. Nobody lets their dog out. The territories are so large that dogs let themselves out somewhere on their own land where they have a task: guarding or herding sheep. My wirehaired dachshund has no task. He is from the city and will not be told anything. Just like the Portuguese cat. He also just does his thing. 

The guest dog Kitty is a different story. She is well brought up and used to going for long walks twice a day with her owner Leone Holzhaus, who has been in hospital for a month now. Kitty adapts well, doesn’t complain and sometimes looks at this busy household with suspicion. In the morning I pay a lot of attention to her and in the evening she can sit on my couch and we have a nice conversation. The attention she always gets from Leone and the delicious food she makes for Kitty, well, maybe she lacks that. Luckily it is never a dull moment here, so she has plenty of distraction. 

By the way, Rus the cat has been wearing a cap around his neck for five days. Because of a stitched ear. Rus is an outdoor cat that sometimes comes inside. Now it is different. He is more inside than outside. Because of the cap he seems to be disorientated and we don’t dare to let him go into the wild. So he is let loose under supervision. I even put him on a leash because if he suddenly takes a sprint, I will lose him. He seems to think it’s fine, although last night he had to be taken off the roof in rain and storm. Never a dull moment as I said. 

Now it is afternoon and all the animals are sleeping. Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro sounds from the speakers, candles are lit and so are the lights. Outside, in the olive grove, the rain is murmuring in silence. It seems as if there is peace in the world. In a few days, when the sun comes out again, there will be more light than shadow. Then everyone will walk with light steps and straight backs. Ready for what is to come.

We humans are not to be trifled with because we are many times bigger and lighter than we think we are. 

I am hopeful for tomorrow. Just like the animals. And when there is a moment when a dark thought arises from the darkness of the subconscious, I repeat the following mantra until the thought has melted into the light:

All is well

All is working itself out for my highest good. 

Only good can come out of this situation.

I am safe.

Life loves me.