I’m sitting in a “coffee shop”:http://www.anthonyscoffee.com/ in Paia, Maui writing this entry on my iBook…

Eleven months ago, J and I flew out of Boston on the first leg of our journey to Maui.

And I’m finally feeling settled in here.

It could be the weather – after all, today there’s not a cloud in the sky. I think, however, my comfort is something more internal. Maui doesn’t have all the distractions of the mainland, especially places like Boston. Living here forces you to spend much more time with yourself, and if you’re not comfortable with who you are – you’re in for rough seas.

I knew this would happen before I moved here. When J. first suggested moving here, I balked. Frankly, the concept of moving to a place like Maui terrified me; I knew that I could not live here without massive changes in my life. I sure was right. In some ways, I came specifically because I knew I couldn’t any longer deny the parts of my life that were old and outmoded. I needed the change, and it needed to be so drastic I couldn’t see what form it’d take or how I’d come away from it.

Our lives are so short and so many forces pull on us each day; most of us find, at the end of each month, year, decade, that we’ve done nothing of our own choosing, instead living in reaction to all those forces yanking us around.

What happens if we stop reacting with such intensity and start to channel that energy into areas of our own choosing?

Today I hitchhiked into Paia. As far as I could see over the ocean, the pacific light glittered white off the tops of waves as azure as all those tropical travel brochures. The sugar cane whispered in the wind and the light aroma of pineapple spiced the air near Ho’okipa.

All the lessons my yoga and Buddhist teachers, my parents, my friends, my fellow beings have tried to teach me over the years – I’m beginning to understand.

Peace is possible. It comes in the form of abandonment of fear and faith in living deliberately.