Treasures - Celebrating my 30's

I am a fan of the thrillers and the adventures  - a cool fall evening and a wonderful mystery are a little peace of heaven in my world.  Yet, I  am not one to try and consciously solve the mystery as much as I enjoy the way the story evolves, savoring the details as they are revealed.  The way I read these books is illustrative of the way I live my life, enjoying the moments as they come with a vague notion of events that are planned in the future.  I don’t live for these moments as much as I know they are there and live life as I move toward them.  I like to think that this allows me to find the gems and the diamonds in the rough and the treasures that are scattered about; and, most of the time I do find some of them.  In the past decade, there have been treasures – some of which I have found in plain sight, others have required digging and discovery, and others have dropped in my lap or hit me in the head, depending on how you look at it. 

In Plain Sight

    Of course, the topper of this is my daughter.  She is a treasure, not because she is my daughter, but because she is 100% herself (and she is the first to say it).  She is a treasure from the music of her laugh to the attitude in her words to her insight and compassion.  Those who do not believe children have lessons to teach or a voice to share have yet to spend time with a child.  Along with her comes the velveteen dog who is not velveteen but there isn’t a friend more well loved in that this dog is living proof that the story, the Velveteen Rabbit is possibly non-fiction!  There is family, mine, hers, immediate, extended, and friends – who are family in my world.  Oh, and a few fluffy beasts, a lot of plants, the sweetness of the breeze, the power of the storms, and the wonders of the ocean.  These are the not so “hidden in plain sight” treasures of my life.

Hidden Treasures

I have heard it said that the best place to hide anything is in plain sight – and some of the treasures of the last decade … right there, before my eyes, it just took me a while to “see” them.  My friends (not easy to miss, yeah?) are the overlooked gems in this treasure chest.  I didn’t realize the wonders or the magic of my friends, near and far, until I reached out for help.  There they were – women and men helping, listening, supporting, and finally telling me… “Ride over! Time to get off!!”  Because, at the end of the day, sometimes the best friend we can be is the one that says the five minutes of pity are over, it is time…These friends – if I ever doubted that people had my back, this past decade has taught me that not only is my back covered, but there is someone to hold each of my hands, to give lots of hugs, to sit and share a coffee, and there are even a few traveling to share my birthday and a few laughs. 

Digging for Treasure

Sometimes I have a map when I start digging for treasure.  Most of the time, however, I leave it to intuition, deduction, and my gut.  The hidden treasures uncovered throughout the last decade are numerous, often they are the events, people, and experiences that ask me to stretch or find more of myself.  They can be enriching immediately or the impact of their discovery can be slow in coming or life changing in some form.  My daughter’s father and the evolution of our relationship is one such example.  The experience is one that has been difficult to swallow at times, challenging beyond expectation, and yet, the experience is empowering, enlightening, and enriching in ways that I have yet to fully understand though I will say I appreciate the role he has and does play in my life. 

There are other hidden treasures, the kind that delight, bring laughter, and have me smiling when I least expect it.  They have asked me to look beyond my perspective and offered the opportunities to think or reflect.  Oh, and some of them are all about creating…

This blog started as a lark – today it is one of the unexpected, hidden treasures of the past decade.  Through it, I have been reunited with my love of writing and have found a forum to express myself in a variety of written forms.

Treasures that just… Happened

    These are the unexpected; the little things that have opened my eyes – and they are abundant.  I lack the space and the words to list them or give them justice.  They are the smiles of strangers, the bridges that I have crossed, the feel of my passport in my back pocket, the taste of a hazelnut Fro, and the discovery of new people and neighborhoods and music and books.  It is one of these treasures that inspired this post – and the thought around it.  I met one of my dearest friends when we were in the 5^th grade.  From that point, we have been friends though we rarely see one another nor do we talk often on the phone; yet, she is a rock in my life as I am in hers.  It is in an e-mail I wrote to her that I realized a treasure that fell into my lap or hit me in the head – the kind that seems to have no origin and to consider how it came about is fruitless because it just happened which is further evidence that it is a treasure, yeah?  In this case, the treasure is a person whose star collided with mine nearly two years ago and who, in some intriguing way, has become a confidant and a kindred spirit.

Treasures

Treasures are everywhere – from the beaches of Florida to the deserts of Arizona to the taverns of Boston and the cobblestone streets of Europe and the animals of the Antarctic.  They are people and places and nature and animals and gestures and words.  One only has to open my Reader to find treasures – blogs and posts and experiences and people – each a treasures in their own right.  I don’t have to look far to find treasures in my life – I just have to open my eyes and my heart to see them.

I often wonder what each of us would find if we became treasure hunters for fifteen minutes a day?  Would we find the treasures that are in plain sight, hidden, or would we notice them falling from the sky like stars – amazing and brilliant?