“Welcome Home!” my housemates said when I flew into Maui four weeks ago. “Welcome home!” the Peaceful Women island-dwellers echoed as they greeted me. But when Brittany, the bank teller, said it to me, it felt completely different.

“So where are you living on island?” she asked in the course of filling out a form.
“In Haiku.”
Where did you live on the Mainland?”
“California.”
Oh, I love California!” she exclaimed.
“I love it too, but I’d lived there since I was twenty...

There’s nothing wrong with my Mainland clothes. They mix, match, and mingle with each other and with my small, but mighty earring repetoire. I couldn’t bring all my clothes to Maui, but I seem to have chosen well. A few sun dresses, two pairs of shorts, various lengths and colors of pants and a party of tops. Even a raincoat, a sweater and a terry zip-up because I live on the cool hip of Mother Maui.

So why was it that after settling into my island home, my clothes didn’t settle in wi...

Is this my life? Am I dreaming a walk through the soft, Hawaiian evening to the Hana Hou Café? My housemate and friend, Karren Louise and I are headed there for some music and a glass of wine. This local dinner house is largely an enclosed patio surrounded by tropical plant life, strung with twinkly lights, and the feel of an old neighborhood restaurant.

We’re not just here for the music, the relaxation, or the pleasurable stroll through the lush, rural streets of our little town. We’r...

It’s been two weeks today since I took up residence in Haiku. So pick up a fork and have a slice of my Maui life, bite by bite. It’s the Back-to-Nature experience I never craved with a kind of Costco, Starbucks, Home Depot twist. (Though that entails a twelve mile ride.) 

Unlocked Doors:People talk about the “good old days” when we didn’t have to lock our doors. I missed that era. Instead I remember standing on the porch in Indiana impatiently stomping to keep the blood flowing i...