It’s a special combination of sand, water, sunshine and community, at Panama City Beach, Florida, that gives this stretch of the Gulf Coast a reason to put out its signage boldly stating, “World’s Most Beautiful Beaches.” Still, under the polished exterior of this tantalizing experience is a deeper beauty that drew one woman here. Irina sought out its redemptive qualities. “The beach has something in it that helps your body to heal, and as a family, we went through a lot of trauma.”

After the sudden death of her husband of nearly twenty years, she was soon on a divine quest to make things whole again far away from the “long winters in Wisconsin.” Since June of 2022, Irina and her teen son and daughter now call PCB their home. “I have to see the ‘ocean’ every day. I will drive out of my way just to see it,” said Irina. Growing up in Germany, her parents would take Irina and her ten siblings camping and to swim in the Adriatic Sea to relax the mind and body after laboring in their garden.

Now the Gulf of Mexico plays that restoring role for Irina. The Emerald Coast beaches boast white powder-soft sand consisting of one type of quartz crystal, considered a geological rarity. “The sand looks like sugar,” she said. “My family thinks it’s snow in photographs.” All the grains are also nearly the same extra-fine size. Quartz crystals have piezoelectric properties as discovered by the French physicist brothers Jacques and Pierre Curie in 1880. Changing the temperature of crystals and putting pressure on them could create electricity. Quartz crystals also vibrate at a precise frequency when voltage is applied to them. Thus, quartz is used in computers, microphones, watches, satellites and covered much of the Space Shuttle Orbiter in the form of silica tiles, essentially pure quartz sand, to transfer heat. In stores that sell gemstones, quartz is said to amplify energy, cleanse negative energies, and balance the body and mind.

“When I walk on the beach, my mind feels more free…it’s light,” she said. The sand is comfortably cool to walk on despite the sun’s blazing rays baring down. The Gulf’s turquoise and blue waters also provide Irina comfort. “I try to go during the summer every day for a swim at least an hour at the beach.” She cites the salts and beneficial elements in the water as also fortifying her. She recalls a time floating for a long spell on her back when overcast skies set in. Her mind felt like it was nowhere, hearing the rain droplets pinging the water. “When I got up, I didn’t even know where I was. I had drifted away.”

With a background in physical therapy, Irina likes to step on the crushed shells at the water’s edge. “You get reenergized. It’s opening up some of the flow in your brain.” She explained the soles of feet are extremely sensitive to touch due to a high concentration of nerve endings.

When the days were shorter, the chill was still no hindrance to Irina. “During the winter, I park my van at the beach, open up the windows, breathe the mineral air in and listen to the ocean,” she said. “Me being here has helped me. The heaviness has lifted. I feel more relaxed.”