A Touch of Darkness @ Noon

Alea Iacta Est (The Die Is cast). Well, In Deed, today we crossed our little Rubicon. Albeit in the opposite direction. Formally speaking: from today we have emigrated. At the city councel we filled up and signed our leaving documents. It's done now.

"You only do this to plague me," my mother said, as I told her in 2008 that we had been so lucky to have found a beautiful house in the Weser Mountainland. In her view and that of my family you don't move abroad. Emigration is blunt nonsense and unpatriotic. Except for the Foul Rich who seek to evade taxes. Poor people like us can travel abroad for vacation. But buy a house in Germany. Never! In France many aquaintances and some friends own an old cottage or farmers house. But normally even they do not live there.

Now you should know that my mother was born in the Dutch Indies, as second daughter of a Customs Officer. Her Indian-Dutch Colonial family had lived there for some generations. In 1932 her family migrated back to Holland, that far away Kingdom of the Low Lands at the North Sea. During her entire lifetime my mother could not imagine that she would ever want to leave her Residential sojourn in her Fatherland.

And even I must admit that I can not believe my eyes now and then. It is a miracle both to Willemien and me. But yes, now we are ready to go, to move on, to enter a new phase in our life. We have been preparing this for some time and I will not forget to visit my parents memorial site, as well as the graves of my grandparents.

In the middle of these necessary "things to do" I had my little escape to the beach. Standing high and looking over the dunes, I saw a spectacular play of Light & Dark. My favourite Mystery Theatre Of the Southern Sky. Everything was lighting up, just for short. The grey sea, the drizzly beachland. A short rainbow. Gulls sailing high over my head. More than ever I know what kind inspiration I'm going to miss in the near future. It will become a profound longing, when I stay looking over my River, streaming definitely to the North Sea.