A Nudge Toward Openheartedness

The magic combination of good people, good food, good neighbors, and good communities.

Greetings from Me Camp! I am wrapping up my last few days in PNW paradise. Yachats, Oregon, is such a gem, I want to sell all my worldly possessions and buy a little house here facing the Pacific. I’ve made friends with the librarians so I feel I have a career path here as their coworker. I texted Tyler: “I meant to have a salad, but I had fried fish again.” At this moment, all my windows are open, the ocean is crashing in front of me, and 90s country is playing on the speakers. THIS SITCH CANNOT BE IMPROVED UPON.

I am testing recipes for a new cookbook while I am here, and due to the egregious surplus of food I am making, I solicited the info for my neighbors, Don and Betty, so I could offer (force) my food upon them. They are the same age as my parents and married the same year.

Don gives me detailed notes on the finished products, supplies me with herbs from his garden, and picked up local Waldport sausage for me for the second pass at the “Sausage, Leek, and Sourdough Gratin” we both agreed was “too bread forward.” I sat with Betty for half an hour going through her wedding album, because old pictures are great for memory care, and although she couldn’t recall any names, she told me: “I remember it was the most beautiful day.”

Me Camp gently nudges me every July toward openheartedness. Because I am so private (in real life) and introverted, I notice I am a more connected and adventurous neighbor at Me Camp than I am in my own neighborhood. I open the valve while I am solo traveling, where I let all my usual barriers crumble, and the joy it brings me is so singular. Not once have I ever regretted trading numbers with a new friend sitting next to me at a bar with our dinners.

Not once have I wished I didn’t accept an invitation to a block party, or cookout, or boat ride. I went to a local book club last year in West Michigan because they invited me. I text my friends from Lambertville to this day, and it is all I can do to stop Tyler from moving permanently to Grand Marais.

Yachats is the dearest, sweetest, friendliest, most progressive little enclave on the Oregon coast. I am obsessed. It has cracked open my heart yet again, like these adventures do. I never worry anymore that the Me Camp magic might have run out, because how could it possibly?

Every Me Camp is its own brand of delight, and I just a grateful recipient, trusting in the magic combination of good people, good food, good neighbors, and good communities. It works every time.

From Bernard at OG Me Camp, Bar Harbor 2021:
“Bernard, you have lived an extraordinary life. What is your best advice?”

“Jen, keep your arms and eyes and hearts open to whoever comes to you, wherever you are. You are meant to let people in.”