Equus Asinus

As any Catholic donkey knows, Lent is a difficult time.  Forty days in the wilderness is never a bundle of fun, but some years are more difficult.  Personally, I just like to keep my head down and pretend to not notice it is Lent.

He who provides for us, «El Provedor» has had a particularly challenging Lent.  He keeps muttering about «the Devil at work» and his morning poo-sweeping on our field seems terribly vigorous, as if he is brushing desks and swivel chairs out of newly occupied offices, in great strokes of the thick-bristled broom.  I should not comment more: the least said on this blog about the changes in his school, the more likely he will keep his job.  It seems there are spies everywhere, particularly among the friends of Dorothy.   I don’t know who they are, but they sound dangerous. So I had better not speak any more about that…

Then we had the battle of El Provedor with the hunter-bullies of Finestrat, in court in Benidorm.  The case was quite clear: video evidence was presented of clear threats of violence outside our donkey field.  Unfortunately, El Provedor is English and Señor Finestrat  («SOY DE FINESTRAT SOY!!!!») and the Secretary of the Hunters Association (a man who cannot successfully hold onto his phone, according to his excuses in court, but is licensed to hold a hunting gun) areSpanish.  So the law favours them.  Naturally.  Threats of violence are quite normal.  It is their right as dysfunctional people, and the judge understands this.

Then we had the efforts of El Provedor to follow a spiritual discipline in Lent.  What a disaster that was.  He contributed to an ecumenical blog four full-length Lent Sunday articles on the Letters of Saint Clare to Agnes of Prague.  Such was his dedication to getting the articles finished that we donkeys missed out on at least two Saturday walks in Lent.  However, I have to report that this was also a disaster because within a few days of El Provedor’s last article in the series, everyone on that blog was at war with each other, and the blog owner had threatened to leave the blog.

Then, as if El Provedor didn’t have enough on his plate, Matilde suddenly went lame.  This turned out to be an abcess and cost El Provedor one hundred and twenty Euros for the veterinary visit.  He had just recovered from this when he got the news that the affordable property in the mountains he wanted to buy for a hermitage had already been sold.

I might be just a donkey, but this is the kind of complicated set of bad news which would be very depressing if I was El Provedor.  It is a horrible set of nasty things all happening at once, and it is what St Francis used to call Perfect Joy.

So that’s all right really.  It helps our spiritual progress.  Have a good last week of Lent.

Postscript: a note to the usual stalker

The WordPress stats and site visitor information is very useful for bloggers: it is easy to see patterns of reader visits. The regular readers have followed this blog and its antecedent Brotherlapin blog for six years, and many still read it without commenting much.  But if you are visiting this blog merely as a stalker, please desist and go and get a life.

Definition of a stalker in this case: someone who just comes to this blog to spy on the blog owner, but is not really interested in entering into the little world of four donkeys on a field that is the sole purpose of this blog.  It is also primarily written to entertain and amuse a certain young lady – a long way from here – who is housebound and not very well.  It is the only way she will ever get to see the donkeys.  You didn’t know that, did you?  So, if you are the person who just comes here to stalk the blog owner – and you know who you are –  this blog is not written for you to spy on the blog owner and find out more about him.  Please go and get a life.  Maybe get your own donkeys…. !