sold their home and bought the Hawaii property on which they now run both a B&B and a working coffee and macadamia nut farm. This industrious couple in their 50's work hard in their two businesses, and love the life in Hawaii it affords them. They are conscious My recent trip to Hawaii reminded me of the power of contrasts. One day I was in Watertown, MA, where the natural world is incidental and mild. Two days and two long plane trips later, the dominant and powerful nature of volcanoes, crashing surf, and lush tropical plants filled my senses. The balance and proportions had changed dramatically. Such sudden rearrangements make one stop and look around!

Many people choose to live in Hawaii BECAUSE the natural world is so dominant and magnificent there - it feeds their souls. It's a tough economy there, so in order to survive, many people work 2 or 3 jobs, and many live at a subsistence level. The people I talked to were quite conscious and intentional about the tradeoffs they were buying into and were at peace with them.

The innkeepers at the Bed & Breakfast where we stayed had glimpsed these options and made major changes in their lives. They'd relocated from Southern California, where they had become increasingly unhappy with the encroachment of urban sprawl into their lives. They sold their home and bought the Hawaii property on which they now run both a B&B and a working coffee and macadamia nut farm. This industrious couple in their 50's work hard in their two businesses, and love the life in Hawaii it affords them. They are conscious o

l plants filled my senses. The balance and proportions had changed dramatically. Such sudden rearrangements make one stop and look around!

Many people choose to live in Hawaii BECAUSE the natural world is so dominant and magnificent there - it feeds their souls. It's a tough economy there, so in order to survive, many people work 2 or 3 jobs, and many live at a subsistence level. The people I talked to were quite conscious and intentional about the tradeoffs they were buying into and were at peace with them.

The innkeepers at the Bed & Breakfast where we stayed had glimpsed these options and made major changes in their lives. They'd relocated from Southern California, where they had become increasingly unhappy with the encroachment of urban sprawl into their lives. They sold their home and bought the Hawaii property on which they now run both a B&B and a working coffee and macadamia nut farm. This industrious couple in their 50's work hard in their two businesses, and love the life in Hawaii it affords them. They are conscious

uls. It's a tough economy there, so in order to survive, many people work 2 or 3 jobs, and many live at a subsistence level. The people I talked to were quite conscious and intentional about the tradeoffs they were buying into and were at peace with them.

The innkeepers at the Bed & Breakfast where we stayed had glimpsed these options and made major changes in their lives. They'd relocated from Southern California, where they had become increasingly unhappy with the encroachment of urban sprawl into their lives. They sold their home and bought the Hawaii property on which they now run both a B&B and a working coffee and macadamia nut farm. This industrious couple in their 50's work hard in their two businesses, and love the life in Hawaii it affords them. They are conscious

e innkeepers at the Bed & Breakfast where we stayed had glimpsed these options and made major changes in their lives. They'd relocated from Southern California, where they had become increasingly unhappy with the encroachment of urban sprawl into their lives. They sold their home and bought the Hawaii property on which they now run both a B&B and a working coffee and macadamia nut farm. This industrious couple in their 50's work hard in their two businesses, and love the life in Hawaii it affords them. They are conscious sold their home and bought the Hawaii property on which they now run both a B&B and a working coffee and macadamia nut farm. This industrious couple in their 50's work hard in their two businesses, and love the life in Hawaii it affords them. They are conscious of their "new deal" every day, as they meet on their lanai (balcony) at the end of their long workday, and watch the sun set on the Pacific.

Such changes are hard, as many of us adopt a buy-and-hold way of navigating our lives. We figure things out once, and don't keep assessing. I once heard the late folk musician Jim Ringer describe his approach to re-tuning his guitar during a concert: "I just tune the sucker once, and don't look back." Many of us use that approach in our lives. We figure out where to live, how to earn a living, and make hundreds of other decisions about our lives, and then shift into automatic.

We can be caught up short, though, if we start to feel significantly off-course in some way. As citizens of the 21st century, our knee-jerk inclination is to get a new job, find a new lover, or BUY something (anything). But a more constructive approach may be to take a step back and ask ourselves what tradeoffs we are living with, and whether they are still valid for us.

Trade-offs often trail after decision-mak