Happily Ever Now

I’m writing this from Maui. James and I moved here after months of preparing. It’s been a vision of James’ for a while to live in Maui. He feels drawn to learn ancient Hawaiian healing and warm waters. Having grown up in rural Tennessee and lived in Central America, I love the flowing vibe of the tropics, the abundance of nature and the slower pace. Ahh.

We began reducing the amount of stuff we had last January when I moved to Mill Valley to live with James. The topic of Maui would come up often and eventually we decided we would move in spring of 2009 and then in November we moved the date to early January. The next few weeks were a whirlwind of selling furniture, donating stuff, sorting, purging, a two day moving sale and a long visit to the post office 3 days before Christmas.

After leaving the Bay Area we spent almost 2 weeks visiting with James’ parents in Kauai and traveling around O’ahu and arrived in Maui the 5th. It felt so good to finally be in Maui. (Though the ferry ride over wasn’t so pleasant. They say the waves were the worst ever for the ferry.) We are currently staying with friends of James’ family who we hadn’t met before and they are great. The weather is beautiful and warmer than the other islands we’ve visited. We’ve seen sunsets, whales, geckos, rainbows, tropical flowers galore, swam, rode bikes, hiked and done the tourist thing…and did I mention rainbows?

Now, in addition to going for bike rides, watching sunsets and checking out different parts of the island, we are putting energy into things like work, finding a home, paperwork, bookkeeping and the honeymoon phase of the move is over (although we do still live in Maui).

As we were gathering our stuff to go to the beach from the clothes line in the backyard, I started expressing little fears that had been building a bit here and there. What if we do…? What if we don’t…? This led to a long chain of fears, doubts, projections and other crap that oozed out on the way to the beach and then subsided just after James made a pile of balanced rocks and coral on the beach and just before the sun set.

James listened, but I felt an edge. There were little crinkles in the middle of his forehead and his eyebrows raised up more than usual as he listened. His breathing was less spacious and his lips were tighter than usual, yet he tried to listen as best he could.

As we were watching the sunset, I looked over and saw an entire row of people resting on the lava rock wall facing the ocean. I felt gratitude to be in a place where people stop and watch the amazing sunset.

I wrapped my gold sarong around me, stuck my feet in the sand and piled the sand around them as the breeze picked up. Looking at my feet in the sand, I made a decision to be fully in the moment, not in the past, not in the future, not in my head, but sitting in the sand, and I looked up at the sunset.

James was stacking what looked to be the top piece on his coral sculpture and I picked up a shell and handed it too him, nodding toward the stack of coral. He gently placed the shell on top of the top piece of coral.

Can it be that simple?

I believe it can. Breathe. Look around and see the beauty around you, feel the sand beneath you, and love the person next to you.

Everything begins from here.