As I was walking in rain along the South Jetty on the Columbia River, it occurred to me that I owed a large debt of gratitude to this place. It had transcended a mere place to visit and had become something vitally important to me.<\/p>\n
How many of us recognize when a place becomes special to us? If so, how long does it take to register this recognition? <\/p>\n
Long ago, Oswald State Park, Nestucca Spit, a Tillamook County clearcut, Hart’s Cove and Pistol River became important to me in ways I could and could not articulate.<\/p>\n
The South Jetty now joins that list. It’s where a magical driftwood fort still stands. It’s where I brought some incredible people to soak in its power. It’s where I commune with bald eagles and taught a beautifully sublime writing workshop, It’s where I took Sonny to the beach for the last time. It’s where I’ve written thousands of lines of prose and poetry. Its where I went to survive the cataclysm of the last three years. It’s where I’ve met drunk Russians and a dying harbor seal. <\/p>\n
As I write this, it occurs to me that the jetty has become special to me in a way the other aforementioned places did not. That makes perfect sense. A place becomes special because of some unique quality. <\/p>\n
What will be the next special place to emerge in my life? <\/p>\n\n
As I was walking in rain along the South Jetty on the Columbia River, it occurred to me that I owed a large debt of gratitude to this place. It had transcended a mere place to visit and had become something vitally important to me. How many of us recognize when a place becomes special […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5013,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,74],"tags":[20,6,13,243],"class_list":["post-5012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","category-oregon-coast_history","tag-astoria","tag-matt-love","tag-oregon-coast","tag-south-jetty","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5014,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5012\/revisions\/5014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}