Be A Treasure Hunter

 

Found Treasures

My Dearest Zoe,

This morning I am reflecting on what more I want to tell you and how to tell you more. It helps me to look through the photos taken while being here. This photo is especially important because it reflects so much about what I want you to know of why you are such a miracle. It is not only about you and the magical circumstances that lead to your birth but it is also about how to live a fulfilling life.

This collage was created by your mom a few days ago. It is so special to me as well as it came from a process that I share with your mom and I hope you will adopt in your life too. It is an art piece of a treasure hunter. Your mom is a treasure hunter. If we all could become treasure hunters in this life we would all have more of the magic like I have shared exists for you and everyone. to be a successful treasure hunter you must have the willingness to expect treasures where ever you go. They can be found in the most simple and unexpected places.

First stop, the thrift shop, or rather, in Australia they are called Op Shops. Our favorite place to look for treasures and special deals is to go where people have donated items due to their generosity and Spring cleaning urges of stuff reduction. You never know what you will find! The base for this object of art was found on one of these excursions into the Op Shop world of Vinnies (Saint Vincent dePaul). This piece of wood with tiles glued on it inspired your mom.

Next or maybe it was first, the collection of items from the sea. At the Shelly Shack there are daily offerings of shells and glass and other extraneous items left on the beach front. Your mom loves, loves, loves going for a walk to see what she can discover returning with filled buckets of treasures.

Sea Treasures

Returning from a treasure hunt.

We cleaned and sorted these one of a kind special items that were claimed by the sea, washed and shaped and given back. Not everyone will walk as your mom does with her eyes pealed, as they say, looking for treasures. Not everyone will marvel at a simple glimmer of color reflected in a broken piece of shell or wonder at the lost story in a piece of rusted metal found in the sand. And, not everyone will take those treasures and put them on another treasure found on another day that spoke of repurposing for art. Your mom did, and now we have a creative art piece ready to be hung and admired. When you see it you will think of the shells and their spiral forms and abalone rainbow colors and the tile and other human made items whose stories have been forgotten but now retold. This is what a treasure hunter does. 

Your mom will hope that you too will become a treasure hunter and find the hope and inspirations and loves and courage that you need in this life in all kinds of places. A treasure hunter knows how to pick and find in the outer and the inner world. This is how we find happiness. This is why she is a happy and fulfilled person in spite of so many physical challenges she has had. She is a treasure hunter for love and humor and courage and inspiration. That is your mother. Follow in those footsteps Zoe. Hunt for all that is good and be careful stepping over the trippers that will be along the way. There are no treasure hunters that do not have obstacles in their way that point to a different direction and cause discouragement. But you can practice this skill and art. Practice by going to Op Shops and open yourself to treasures. Comb the beaches for items from the sea, Look at gardens for flowers and insects and birds. Enjoy the little things that mean so much to being a happy human. 

This life is an adventure with an unfolding you have no way to know before it happens. It opens and opens and challenges and challenges and gives and takes and offers. Just open your eyes to the moment and see what you can find and make your life into art. Have a balance of color and shape and design and sprinkles of magic. That has been my life too. My life with my special daughters, your mother and your Auntie and my granddaughters, you Zoe and Freyja and the wee one that will soon be here too. You do not know what will be but expect it to be a treasure. And then it will be. Treasures can be found when you least expect and need them the most. It is up to you.

My Treasure Hunter and The Moon

 There is something about this photo here Zoe. It is me and over my shoulder is your mom, a delicate pastel sky and the moon in the distance. I could never have imagined when I was her age that this day would come. I could never have imagined that I would be on a sea shore in Australia taking a selfie with your mom in her element being your mom and looking at a moon that is our symbol of hope and life. How could that be? Treasures, treasures, treasures....and to those mothers I know have had loss, greater loss than I have ever known, I know in their stories of grief and loss they too can find treasures and love beyond imagine. We have both ups and downs Zoe, ins and outs, losses and gains, all different some so much greater than others but there are always treasures. It is a belief for sure, but you just have to carry that beach bucket and collect them.

 

Treasure Hunters

Love, Bubbles, your grandmother