I moved to Rincon last year, 2016, in August. I had been having trouble with my living situation in Los Angeles for five years and I was ready to bolt. In a big way.
I had just broken up with my boyfriend and was dealing with some unhappy feelings. I experiment with how to move on from sad feeling so one morning I was giving myself an ayurvedic breast massage that I learned on the internet. I felt that maybe the next step of my life could be to live more Ayurvedically. I had lived in a yoga community when I was 19 and ayurveda talk was common there. I Was interested at the time but didn’t truly pursue it. The new secret to happiness, maybe. I looked online for ayurvedic practitioners in Los Angeles and called a few numbers. Nobody answered, which was fine because I was low on money and couldn’t imagine forking over the dollars to see a practitioner regularly and feel like I was using my money wisely. Then I came across the website of a man named Om Kailas. On his bio page he had a list of his ayurvedic lineage. He used the term “Guru” which I am not enormously fond of but seemed more authentic. His “guru” is a woman named Light Miller. Her guru is Ghandi’s Ayurvedic practitioner. “Wow,” I thought, “interesting.” I googled her name and found her number. I called it. It happened to be her cell phone number and she answered immediately. I told her I had been feeling down and that it has been difficult living with my mom and dad. She gave me various words of advice: Love yourself, go to the ocean every day, remind yourself you are strong, you are s survivor, do warrior poses, take herbs (which she gave me a list of). She also said she closed her wellness center in Florida and is now in Puerto Rico to take care of her mother and to start an online Ayurvedic school. She said she had also been living in her mother’s house and it has been deeply depressing, she is ready to move so she is moving with her husband and her mother to Rincon. Feeling like this could be my renewed chance for more happiness in life I told her how I wish I could be adopted by someone like her, move to Puerto Rico, and learn Ayurveda. She said she’s adopted many people and this could be a real possibility. She asked me what I want to do as my life purpose. I said I want to be a writer and healer. Then she gave me an “assignment:” to write down five people I admire most and why. I later learned this is part of the beginning of the intake as an ayurvedic practitioner based on her school’s teachings.
As soon as we hung up I drove to the local indian store to buy the herbs she recommended. As I was driving she called and said “I have something you could do for me. Can you edit an interview”
I said Yes.
I was very excited.
She sent me the interview which I did edit and emailed it back to her.
Then she called and said that the young woman who had agreed to move in with her to help her start her online school had bailed and she asked me how good I am on the computer. I said really good.
I called my ex boyfriend who is a sweet guy and told him that I needed him to make sure I don’t back out of getting to Puerto Rico. He said he would do that and take me to the airport. Otherwise I don’t think I would have gone through with it. I didn’t even know how to pack for a tropical island. I barely brought anything with me and I used Spirit airlines.
Spirit airlines, put kindly, is not an airline I would recommend. The flight and two stops. One in Michigan and one in Florida. The flight from Michigan to Florida came in late so the connecting flight to San Juan Puerto Rico had taken off with out me and several other passengers. The next flight was leaving four days later. Light called to check in said she has a student who lives in the part of Florida I am stuck in and that’s who I stayed with. We had a fun time going to beach together and chatting along her beautiful horse-filled backyard.
The flight was very long, and I was tired. Light and our new housemate Rebecca picked me up. We are in Old San Juan and she drove to Punta Del Mar, Rincon. I moved in and for the next three months and I had some glorious new experiences every day. Then I found my own beautiful apartment near the beach in Aguada where I am now living happily.
