I just stumbled across your site and was fascinated, as I have been having a crisis of late similar to your laments. While I have not traveled to the extent you have, I have been asking myself where my ideal spot on this planet is–most of my ideals and hang-ups matching yours. I live in a place with plenty of sunshine, but it is either too cold or too hot most of the year, not much in between. Local produce is limited to June-September and organic is limited. I told my husband 11 years ago when we got married that I had no intention of staying here and he expressed a willingness to relocate to a warmer climate. Like you, we started a family and as life goes, here we still are and it has finally reached a breaking point for me. I am filled with dread as I anticipate another onslaught of winter. What to do? Like you said, would I be happier if I didn’t know there were options to live elsewhere? I don’t know. I also ask the question, if there are so many people living in warm climates, why am I still stuck in a place where the weather is miserable? Jobs, family, it is complicated. By the way, I am a Gemini too.

Have you ever looked into Ojai, California? I have been looking at it, and my sister, who is just like me when it comes to climate, organic fresh food, quality schooling/arts/music for the kids, and similar minded people–she says it is her favorite place in the world other than Italy. She has traveled a lot and is also searching for “Utopia.” Search on girl. Let me know if you find it.

Mel

Corey – we did consider Europe, especially Spain, but the long flight and the massive number of smokers put us off. Wireless computer radiation is as damaging as cell phone radiation – so really, you shouldn’t use it at all. If you have absolutely no other option, then connect to download emails, work offline, then just re-connect to send. Disconnect and eject the device when not working online. Most of us are blissfully unaware of the damage EMR (electromagnetic radiation) is doing to our bodies at the cellular level – this will be one of those things in 20 years, like smoking, that we’ll all be exclaiming over our naivety/stupidity.

Fave – don’t worry, if I was having 20 people over, I wouldn’t serve them organic either! Actually, my policy for dinner parties is: If the people eat organic in their own homes, then I’ll spend the money on organic ingredients. But if they don’t, then I won’t. Although, having said that, last time I had people over for chicken curry, I just couldn’t buy the factory farmed chicken. Not for health reasons, but humanitarian ones.

I’ve also learned, from watching my kids, that contentment is really tied to expectations. As adults, the challenge is controlling/managing our expectations!

I read a review of a book written about happiness and the psychologist discovered that the happiest people were the ones with fewer choices. In our culture, we’re programmed to believe that freedom equals happiness. So we think that if we have lots of options that’s going to increase our happiness. But it actually doesn’t play out that way. Too many choices just creates indecision, stress and flip-flopping. If we only have, say, two choices, we just pick one and then make the best of it.

Having said all that, I still prefer lots of choices, but then I am a Gemini!

Jini