Some days sit with you. Gearhart-by-the-Sea is one of those quiet coastal spots that lacks the crowds of Cannon Beach, is devoid of the pretension of Manzanita, and skips the trashiness of Seaside...and is the only place I’ve been able to regularly find whole sand dollars AND occasionally come eye to eye with a herd of elks on the dunes as I follow the path from the street through the dunes and down to the water’s edge. It’s where there are no more polluting cars on the sand and where you can sit there on a cloudy day in winter just as you can in the warmth of the summer sun. It’s the beach I miss most from our chapter living on our coastal farm, and sometimes I wonder if the pandemic had never happened if I’d still be there right now, exhaling...
“When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” ~Haruki Murakami