We met a couple yesterday who are considering a move to Dominica. Although American, they lived in Haiti for 5 years, and they find Dominica really posh compared to living in Haiti! They are very nice people and we are hoping they come to join us.

Anyway, we spent a long time talking about why it is better to live in a developing country like Dominica or Haiti. And it is always good for me to revisit the reasons we came to Dominica and the reasons we stay.

Life is truly better with less stuff and less choices. Last year when I went to Puerto Rico shopping I experienced again the feeding frenzy that attractive merchandising and promotion creates in me. I wanted everything I saw! All of the choices and all of the variety of goods create a hunger for MORE in me that I don't like. Here, I buy what I need and grumble about what I can't get, but it is a liberating experience to not have the constant tug of slick merchandising whispering that "you really should try this new product..."In the US shopping is a hobby for a lot of folks, and I would sometimes join the "shop 'til you drop" cult. I did not devote my life to it, but I would indulge in the odd mall crawl. And I still have a ton of things that got hauled down here from those times. I was a big fan of the discount places like T.J Maxx, and it was sooo hard for me to pass up the bargains on really cunning things...

Anyway, down here there is not much recreational shopping. I shop when I must, and for what we need, not what we want. All of that hunger for the newest and most admired new gadget has gone, and with it a sense of liberation from the greedy tyrant inside has come. I don't have to do battle as much with that spoiled child who wants it all since I live here.

I do occasionally look at goods online, but once I add all of the shipping, VAT and duty to import things, they rarely get ordered. We still buy books, and replace clothes as they wear out, but that is pretty much it. I enjoy having the few nice things I brought with me, but I don't feel the need for more. I no longer have that inner restlessness of a void needing to be filled by another purchase.

Of course all that purchasing power came with indentures. We traded years of our life to buy things we did not need and later found we did not want very much. It makes me sad to look back at some of the choices we made. Sigh...

Last evening we had a marvelous electrical storm, and we sat watching the wind, rain and flashes of lightening. It approached from the West, so we could watch it coming from far out in the Caribbean. Our power was out, so after the entertainment of the storm passed, we crawled under the bed net and read by flashlight, enjoying the night sounds, the cool breezes and the rising moon through our bedroom window. Life doesn't get better than that.

Written by Jen Miller