You can't say that the waves of the Pacific Ocean lapped at a beach. The unbridled power of that vast body epitomized the term "force of nature." The water contained a foreboding, mysterious, uncontrollable, untameable quality every time it hammered against the rocks. Or the beach. It didn't matter if it was on a pristine, nearly deserted expanse in Hawaii. The Pacific Ocean answered to no one and nothing. It was an element unto itself.

Yet as I sat underneath the covered terrace of our suite at the Four Seasons Maui in Wailea, even the Pacific seemed to put on a gentler mask. The waves roared with ferocity but somehow...