Treasure. — X marks the spot…Hurry, Grab them!

I haven’t picked up the Simple Abundance book in years. But this morning, its pink paisley pages called out to me from my little cozy writing nook (aka closet).  In the few minutes I had before deciding which shade of grey (it is not about the books people, but my new signature color as my own personal and utterly useless protest of winter) to wear today…I picked up the book and decided to check out the message of the day.

I immediately remembered the topic and smiled. Treasure maps. Define what you want. Tell the universe what you want. Own it. Claim it. Create your treasure map. X marks the spot.

As an experienced journal keeper over many, many years, I’m sure I have completed this task. Many times. Cutting things out of magazines. glue-sticking into journals, creating the very cool, very hip collages of all the little things I believe, what I want and what I want to do.

But looking at it this morning, I began to wonder what do I really treasure? What would I want to find under a spot marked with X? And I started a brainstorm list of questions in my little on-the-go notebook as possible angles on this topic:

What are the things that I long for? What do I want to do?

What are the things I have that I don’t want to lose?

What are my treasures?

…..What do I save if there’s a fire?

And then, I can’t make this up—Another synchronicity of life presents itself, as lo and behold, WordPress offered this as a Daily Prompt: Your home is on fire. Grab five items (assume all people and animals are safe). What did you grab?

Are you kidding me? So, obviously, I’m going with the last question (and buying a lottery ticket!)…what treasures do I grab!?

Since all of my people treasures are safe and sound, waiting for me by the mailbox, as is our plan, just in case…

I grab as many photo albums and pictures as I can carry.  I might take the time to get a box and load them up. Those would be the things I would be devastated to lose. Other than the ones actually hanging on the walls, they are mostly found clumped together in albums and boxes on the office bookshelf. My family. Growing up days. The days of me and the best friend/partner/hubby pre-kiddos. The wedding album. Kiddos as babies. The scrapbooks I used to spend hours upon hours on.

I would grab the laptop and the external hard drive because that is where the rest of the digital pictures are.

Then, if there is time … and completely against the advice of my Dad who is a firefighter… I would make a run upstairs to grab the box of home videos, since I haven’t done what I have always said I should do, which is to digitize those.

I grab my JoJo. My sock monkey trusted friend from forever.

If I can carry this, I would grab the lockbox with our birth certificates and important documents….but that is supposed to be fireproof, so maybe I’ll take my chances…it is pretty heavy.

As long as I’m in my closet, then I might as well try to save my wedding dress.  It is boxed up for Y someday and as long as there is time, I might want to grab it.  It is big though and a bit unwieldy, so that might have to be sacrificed.  Really, what are the chances that she will actually want anything to do with that in 20 years?

There are a few other things I might grab, if possible, some notes and journals, my box of mother’s day cards and gifts, anything I spot on my way out of the house that is of the sentimental sort.

My treasures are not worth much.  Nothing that the insurance company would value afterwards.  But these are the things I call my treasures.

The things I would look for under any spot marked with an X…and hopefully without the pressure of a burning house in the background! EEEK!

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