OUR MESSY BUT PERFECT MOVE TO PARADISE: Weigh the Possibility
Can I relax here? Perhaps I can relax here. I’m not sure what relaxing really means, but I might try. How can people truly unwind with problems to solve, projects to complete, lists to make. Life and things and work and choices get in the way! How do people turn off their brains? Like I said, we are problem-solvers so now this sun-hugging, flower smelling place became a project… a quest, and the overall new source of focus. And it was the people, not only the scenery that we were drawn to. The locals are authentic- no putting on airs here. You are who you are! Slap on a real smile, allow the other car to go first, and throw out the shaka sign.
You must understand… we just flew in from Seattle. People don’t give out smiles easily there. You have to offer a lot of them before you get one back. People are busy walking/jogging/biking with ear phones plugged in, and doing… distracted things, especially with cell phones permanently glued to their hands, to bother much with Aloha’s or Mahalo’s or smiles. In Seattle, if I had the audacity to pause and allow a car to turn before me, I could get an angry Move On! honk from the Tesla in my rear-view mirror. I would certainly be afraid to throw a shaka sign for fear a Seattlite may misunderstand the intent. Not kidding!
Back to Paradise… So, we spent some significant time plopped on a striped hotel towel on any given sandy beach and watched the dreamy blue ocean waves. Letting it all soak into our souls until we felt like bacon frying up in the pan. Then a dip in the foamy ocean to cool off. Repeat the process. I pondered… Is it possible to move to paradise? At the very least through the chill-to-the-bone, double-layer coat wearing winter months? And how could we accomplish that? Certainly, a problem to solve. We needed to check out the big island, Oahu, and Maui to get a handle on this whole paradise idea.
