The Good Life and How to Get It

• We spend every summer either in Latin America or on a wilderness trip. When we travel in Latin America, we avoid cities. We try to find towns that are the Latin counterparts of Dillon. Rural travel in Latin America may seem completely different from wilderness trips, but both have the same effect on our perspective and priorities.
• We have always found it easy to save. Even when we weren't making much money, saving came pretty easy. It seems as if we've spent less than we made, our whole life. That's good for freedom.
• We meditate. I meditate mostly in the yard, Laura mostly in the house. Mornings, this time of year, I watch the aurora borealis. Our mama cat meditates with me. Meditating isn't religious for us; it's just a quiet time, without much thinking.
• We eat simple and healthy. We don't try, particularly, but Laura has a degree in nutrition -- and we are in the whole-wheat business, after all. Meals are simple and basic.
• Speaking of the whole-wheat-bread business, it doesn't produce a lot of ethical-values bind. It's a nice business, that way.
• We "buy it, don't make it." Anytime we can trade money for time, we do so. We were like this, to the extent we could be, even when we were poor.
• We always "buy high, sell low." That's really a key to freedom. The minute we're done with something, we sell it supercheap and get it out of our life, fast. When we need a thing to make our goals happen, we outbid everybody.
• We almost never multitask. We start something, do it, stop it, pause, start the next thing. We try never to think about what we aren't doing. We make choices mindfully, and then we're happy with them.
• I was born without the gene for responsibility. I like helping people, I like being a nice person. But when people want to get me to do something, it's like trying to pick up a watermelon seed off a smooth plate.
• We married each other. We think alike; we've grown up together since we were 15. We can move with great freedom, as a pair. --Pete, December 4, 2000

Michael Hopkins is Inc. 's executive editor.

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