So, You Want to Live and Work in Vieques..
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Vieques- January 2008 NEW
Living and Working in Vieques..
Of course when one lives in Vieques, life becomes more or less routine. We know we are warm, when we read about sub zero temperatures in the states; we adjust to the minor deprivations in food supply (no pate, not much good cheese) we complain about the annoying iguanas that seem to have multiplied here and like to poop in our pools.
Only when visitors arrive and in some way our choice to live on this small island has to be explained, sometimes defended, do we think about what it is about Vieques that attracts us. Recently a dear friend visited and I tried to see Vieques though her eyes.
On the beach with her at Sun Bay this week I realized that one important consideration is the limitless quality of time, space and nature.
In some fundamental way there are few boundaries here. Time only has meaning if one makes appointments, and one can live here quite well without ever making any appointments. My friend put away her watch for the duration of her stay, relying on me to let her know when we had to eat, sleep, and go to the beach.
Swimming in the ocean is utterly limitless. There are no barriers to prevent one from swimming in that delicious cool water until exhaustion sets in. Similarly, the night sky, unfettered by urban lights, is limitless. As a sometime writer, the expanse of time to devote to that work has no boundary, except those that I choose to set.
In a sense it is a dangerous world here. Without limits, there is little accountability. Thoughts take flight, all the time in the world to reminisce, to see life in the nuanced way it is meant to be lived. There is little responsibility also. At a minimum all one has to do is acquire and eat some nourishment and provide for shelter.
Of course, mostly we dont live that way. We make dates, we have dinner parties, and we worry about our children, money, and health. Human nature being what it is, we even undertake projects. We volunteer, we work, we shop we do all those things against a background of the available infinite to impose some order in our world.
But we dont have to do that. And sometimes, as happened to me this week, there is an acute appreciation of the inexhaustible and boundless joy Vieques offers to people who can, for even a short time, liberate themselves from confinement and surrender to the island.Have a wonderful visit,
Sheila
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Webmaster's Note * Sheila has many hats and is also a published author Her first book was "Simple Truths". She has asked that I put a short story she has written and I enjoyed it a lot, even though it has nothing to do with Vieques. You can download "Knowing" by right clicking on the link.
She is also Co-owner of Crow's Nest Realty with Eli Belendez of the hotel Crows Nest.
Sheila can be reached for a brochure through her web page at http://www.crowsnestrealty.com