Coastal Walks

This is an excerpt from the weekly News-Loveletter. If you would like it sent to your inbox directly (with all the other juicy bits, including a mini joy practice), you can add yourself to my mailing list here.

On Sunday afternoon, I emerged from my workshop-building to visit my favorite stores in the Nye Beach shopping district. I stopped by the Blue Pig Bakery for a warm cinnamon roll with buttercream frosting and sallied on to Jovi, one of my favorite gift shops on the planet.

I chatted at length with the proprietors of each, who were both proud of the work they did in bringing the very best to their community and its visitors. The bakery offered a wide selection of pastries and treats, and I regret not having space to fit in the apple pie scone, which looked and sounded delicious.

The owner of Jovi said she chose the name “Jovi” as a amalgamation of the French phrase “joie de vivre,” meaning roughly the joy of life. Her collection of textiles, cards, soaps, scents, housewares, and clothes from around the world is colorful and unique. With baskets of rolled up wool rugs, cheerful mobiles, and art that honors the local flora, the boutique is both intimate and Bohemian.

I feel so spoiled when I get to be a part of the local economy of my favorite haunts. Interconnection is so beautiful. I bought a number of greeting cards and the book, A Woman’s Huts and Hideaways, that I’d been eyeing there for a few years. The photo I snapped above is taken near Jovi. The over-sized hydrangeas and wind-gnarled coastal pines are signature features of autumn in Newport. I grew up on the coast, so this is my home-away-from-home.

Where do you feel at home as a visitor? Do you feel the sense of interconnection as you purchase/collect things there to integrate into your life-at-large?