I have since thought much about treasure since those early and eager days of soaking in a good pirate story on a Friday afternoon after school.... What seemed so fantastical then has become a reality to me now.
I too have buried treasure. I have collected my own silver, gold and shiny things from my own journeys to faraway lands, they just don't happen to look like coins or jewels. My chest is full of singular exquisite experiences, each of which has been captured, recorded and "buried" deep in my treasure chest called my Heart.
There are names, faces, landscapes, images that never end and smells, oh yes....even smells! Wondrous smells that fill the senses like a thick fog that rises as each memory unfolds and makes itself known once again in my mind's eye. Smells that conjure up whole experiences...each with their own particular "scent". The familiarity of smell is so strong and it has so little to do with food, but rather it becomes an anchor for each treasured memory. The pungent smell of a busy open market in Indonesia, or the earthy-clean dirt smell after a summer rainfall in a mountainous rice paddy.
The treasure chest of my heart is so deep and wide. It never seems to matter how many people I meet or experiences I pass through, there is always room to put one more for which I feel so grateful.....I call it my "Heartspace"
What I enjoy most about my journeys that delve into my heart, are the small moments that have been tucked quietly away that sometimes have lay so dormant, they seem forgotten...until a smell, a name, a face, some reminder triggers that small but significant moment to instantly appear on the movie screen of my mind and suddenly relive a wondrous memory, one that was almost just forgotten, almost out of reach.....but never gone, never fading and always willing to be selected again and again for an instant burst of energy or for a balm of gilead, to heal a current hurt, mend bent feelings or simply to put a new smile on a well worn face.
There have been times when I didn't think I could fit any more into my heart, either too hurt or too full of love to allow more in. But, the reality is that despite my best efforts my heart has its' own mind, it stores things that I wouldn't have chosen to store, but often turns out to be some of the most special treasure of all.
I write my own stories now, of traveling afar and finding treasure that I add to the miracle of my never ending, always expanding heart.
