Moving to Vieques

In 2021, I knew I had to move, had known it for five or six years, but the pressure was becoming urgent; the Washington state apartment where I lived was no longer the right place for me. I loved where I lived and found it convenient to everything. It was beautiful and comfortable, and increasingly I was receiving the message that it was the wrong place. But where to go?

Since my teen years, I had wanted to end up on an island with palm trees and ocean and beaches, probably in the South Pacific, but I kept being very practical and looking at communities around me—further south, further east, further north, and back in California near my family.

Meanwhile, on HULU, I had found a series of 20-minute TV shows called Caribbean Life. I watched the entire years-long series, not thinking of where to move, but vicariously enjoying beaches and oceans and palm trees. I watched to unwind at the end of the day and was just starting on my third repeat of the series when I woke one morning thinking, “I should move to Vieques.” It felt like a revelation and a big question at the same time—why Vieques? The first answer was that Vieques is in the United States. Instantly I knew I was not going to the South Pacific.

I started watching selectively—only those Caribbean islands in the U.S. It came back to Vieques. I emailed my spiritual astrologer, Christine Barrere, who had my chart and asked for an appointment for her to consider the island of Vieques as a place for me to move. I talked with her in June of 2021 and she was over-the-top enthusiastic: YES, I must have been paying attention, this was the end of a 250 year cycle for me and I HAD to move. YES, Vieques was centered in a zone that would be perfect for me to live in. She expected me to find happiness, joy, even ecstasy there. Furthermore, I should move between November 25th and January 5th of next year. I should take the time until then to get all my ducks in a row, she said. The only negative was that when I lived here, people would lie to me; later a good friend gave me a call to overcome that negative bit of astrology.

I kept my mouth shut. This was all in alchemy. I opened my heart only to one woman friend whom I trusted; sadly, later on, she spilled the beans to the most talkative member of our Teaching Center, but there were only weeks to go by that time.

Everything seemed to be pointing to me moving to Vieques. I double checked with a few of my best advisors, my favorite ascended masters. I repeatedly had thoughts about the bad state the continental U.S. was in, the open borders, the enormous spending by the Federal government that would certainly result in inflation to match, the willing giving up of basic freedoms by millions of people who had put on masks, quarantined themselves at home, and given up going to church and seeing their families, all in the name of security, and the violations of the first amendment driven by government and social media. There was government-sponsored abortion, gender confusion, racial prejudice, and a health tzar who issued unscientific commandments and expected all to obey. I began to get the idea that Vieques could be made into a sort of haven of freedom. If lightbearers needed a safe place to go to keep the flame of our four essential freedoms, Vieques could be it. Even if the big island of Puerto Rico was attacked, Vieques seemed to be small enough to escape attention. 

I asked Lanello, “Should I move to Vieques?” and he nodded yes.

Still, in June, I bought a plane ticket for December 11th. I paid an extra $80 to have only a 13-hour flight instead of a 24-hour flight. Except for that, the ticket was the cheapest I could find and was in my window of travel time. I had not understood all the fine print about bringing my dog with me and ended up having to enroll in an online class to turn him into a service dog after qualifying by undergoing a phone-call psyche exam in which I confessed to having had PTSD from my childhood. A service dog is a step up from a mere emotional support dog, and he would be qualified to ride in the cabin of the airplane with me. After 120 hours of training and a $460 fee, quizzes, essays, and proof of performance videos, not to mention another couple of hundred hours of watching training videos learning to be a dog trainer, he was certified forever as a service dog and could go everywhere with me for free. Two ducks in a row.

I got my dental work done, one cataract fixed, all minor health issues fixed, more ducks taken care of. 

I gave away things, sold things, signed a month-to-month lease instead of my usual yearly one, and gave notice of my date of departure. 

By the grace of God, my online tutoring could come right with me. I canceled lessons only for the last week before departure when I would be doing final packing and traveling. I tutored again the Monday after I arrived.

Meanwhile, I had to find a place to move to on Vieques. I couldn’t just show up with a dog and a suitcase and no place to go. I found one in a casita on the property of the broker who had been featured in the TV shows done on Vieques. I signed a lease and made a deposit, ordered up high-speed internet to be installed, and made sure gas, water, and electricity would be on. More ducks in a row.

The last week, the members of my church rallied round me and worked day and evening to get my apartment emptied. I made piles: thrift store, trash, does anybody want this? and pack-to-ship.  I made trip after trip to the post office to ship boxes. They told me it would take four weeks for things to arrive. I would be moving into a furnished apartment but was told to bring my own pots and pans and linens. I needed clothes and my computer and iPad and all the plugs and cords, pens and papers. In all, I paid $75 extra for my carry-on luggage of essentials to get me through a month until my boxes arrived. One friend bought my car for his wife—whew.  Anther good friend took me home from that empty apartment to spend the night on her sofa and be driven to the airport at 3 a.m. in the morning.

And, after the whirlwind, I arrived, I and my little dog too.