Finding Treasure

I love the idea of finding treasure. If they didn't cost so much, I'd buy a metal detector (White brand) in a flat SECOND. There is a giant hole in the back yard to prove my belief that I will one day find GOLD. My brother Glenn (yes, genetic relation to me) has one and he found a (?)Civil War era something in my yard when he came to visit. It looks like a piece from an elaborate bridle, I think. And, his detector showed metal, could be GOLD underground in MY yard. I've now almost completely dug up a giant cement lid with a metal handle, about two feet under ground, and 4 feet in diameter. David does not want me to finish digging because he says the black pipe leading to it suggests that it is a sewer cover. But, because I no longer have the metal detector to show me if just the handle set it off, I don't know. I mean, there could be GOLD under there!

What better place to hide a treasure chest full of gold than in a septic tank under ground, right?

My treasure hunt is not limited to gold. Imagine the day I found my first arrowhead. We were on a shoot in rural Georgia, and I drove the director mad when I kept asking for "one more minute" in the freshly plowed tobacco field before getting into her car.


This week, after spending 4 hours cleaning out closets and file boxes looking for Zion's lost passport, I'm into identifying coin defects in the piles of change I dug up. David laughs at each day's coin stash next to the magnifying glass on my desk. I'LL be the one laughing my way to the bank when I find an extra tree on my bright and shining Minnesota quarter!

There is one area where I've actually discovered multiple treasures. I'm blessed with amazing friends. Friendships that deepen with age. Not only are old friendships that I've held close for years "treasure," but new friendships are gems I joyfully unearth every few years.
Laura and Emily are a few of my Gem friends. We met through Ethiopian adoption, and we might as well have grown up down the block from each other. They are funny and deep and emotional and caring and sarcastic and inspirational and thoughtful and smart, too. A few weekends back, we met, all three together for the first time. I was sick, but pretended to myself that I could not possibly be contageous, just because there was no way I could give up seeing the two of them together. It was every bit as fun as I imagined and I can't wait to do it again.