"The universal joys of treasure hunting."

The wall behind my computer monitor holds some of my favorite treasures.
I wonder what stands out to you?

This week I started reading a book by author Jon Collins-Black that has real life, high stakes treasure hunting experience, but also a thoughtful message. Inspired by his work I added a personal touch to the treasures I will hide.

"There's Treasure Inside"

    Jon Collins-Black hid 5 chests full of highly valuable treasures across the United States and wrote the clues to finding these treasures into his book "There's Treasure Inside". When I first found out about this at the end of last year it reignited my interest in treasure hiding and hunting and I immediately ordered his book. Unfortunately for me, so did thousands of other people and his book was immediately sold out. I was just able to get my copy this week and blew through the first half of "There's Treasure Inside" the night I received it. 

    What Jon Collins-Black does in his book is share a message that resonated with me deeply. He hopes that even for those that don't seek his treasure they will find a personal sense of joy within its pages and I too sincerely hope that an aspect of finding joy will come through in my (exceptionally smaller, significantly localized) project. Additionally, in a similar way to how Jon Collins-Black has been an inspiration for me, I would be OVER THE MOON if I could inspire some people in my community to find unique ways to share their joy with others. 

I found a special kind of joy last year in taking my first ever decent quality photo of the moon through my telescope.

    "There's Treasure Inside" has been a wonderful delve into the stories of unique historical treasures and reflections on the ways in which these treasures inform how we can find and grow joy in ourselves.

     Inspired by these messages, I decided to include nearly half of my collection of silver coins to the treasures I hide. I feel like they add a personal touch to the meaning behind this activity that was otherwise missing, and allow me to share the joy of these objects that my father gifted me with other people. Pictured below are these coins sitting on the back cover of Jon Collins-Black's "There's Treasure Inside".

These ten coins are pictured sitting atop the book I've been enamored with: "There's Treasure Inside" by Jon Collins-Black. One coin went into each of the 10 boxes.
Included are 4-1967 commemorative Canadian silver dimes.
3-1967-1968 American silver half-dollars.
3-1965 Canadian silver dollars.

    With the addition of my father's silver coins, one last piece remained before I am ready to hide my treasures and that was how I will seek engagement if people find my treasure boxes. What I've been able to do is add a QR code into each box so that if the finder chooses, they will be linked directly to an unpublished page that prompts them for feedback. Both the option to comment and the link to an anonymous feedback form are available. 

    Coming up this week: I suppose I need to actually hide the treasures! I think in future blogs I would also like to reflect on the act of treasure hunting and gift giving, of seeking and sharing joy, and further dig into the reflections of Jon Collins-Black. But first let's hope the weather holds out and it isn't too cold for a good long hidey-hike in my neighborhood. 

The frigid whisper of uncertainty...

This place is literally a walk-in treasure chest.

    This week I went looking for the treasures that I could potentially hide. Pictured above is one of my local shops called Avenue Daughter that feels like you're literally walking into a treasure chest. So many excellent treasures to be found here but all well beyond my budget for this project. "If I had a million dollars" has been on my mind a lot while looking for treasures to hide.

    On the other hand while looking for inspiration I considered this "disco dinosaur" which seemed a fun idea. But on further reflection it didn't match what I was looking for.

Sorry Disco Dino you didn't make the cut!

    A local coin and stamp shop called AMIS had a literal wealth of items that were exactly what I was looking for in terms of size, price, uniqueness, and accessibility. So I made the decision to buy a collection of international coins as my treasures to be found. I selected the coins entirely based on if I thought they were neat. Some were super tiny and unique, or had a great patina. Some had interesting designs and others just felt nice and heavy for their size. I probably spent 30 minutes here alone looking through the selection of coins here and picking each one for a total of 50 coins.

    Further down the road a gift shop called Himalayan Collections had these gorgeous and colorful little boxes that would fit the coins perfectly. For a reasonable price I kept pretty close to my budget and have 10 boxes with 5 coins in each as my treasures to hide. 

These are the treasures I will hide! 

    I hope that if the coins aren't very exciting to whoever finds them, at least the boxes themselves are really pretty and could be used for other things. It weighs on my mind that the treasures might not be "good enough" but I'm trying to maintain an open mind and positive approach as well as recognize my own financial limitations.

  

Where oh where can I hide them though?

   My other task this week was to look for potential hiding places that met an as yet undetermined set of criteria. A few things I knew for certain as the places needed to be public and they needed to be interesting.

    The first place I noticed was this clock tower pictured below from immediately in front of it. One of the most interesting buildings in this neighborhood for its pink and green appearance, the surprisingly functional clock at its top, and the engraving that notes it as the previous location of St Jude's Church circa 1911. Below the tower is a great little covered pavilion and garden that requires just the slightest amount of intentionality to get around to, and I rarely see anyone in it. On my hunt for interesting locations this point of interest is clearly visible, easily accessible, empty, and rarely used so I think a prime location to leave a treasure behind.

Clocktower

    The other point of interest that I was drawn to this week is an abandoned phone booth. This artifact of a bygone era has been repurposed by many street artists as a unique public "art-hub" where people have been using it as a shared space to display their work. The booth is continually evolving as new pieces are taped, tagged, or glued onto it and I would like to contribute by leaving treasures here and becoming part of this creative collaboration.

Niche in so many ways

    I wanted to highlight one fun example of how this abandoned phone booth is being used, with this cheeky little "ad" for an Oyster Hotline that was taped up recently. The number worked and I had a silly, brief conversation over text about oysters. 

I wonder if they're still taking calls?

My takeaways from this week are:

• I need to maintain an open mind and positive approach to this activity. "It ain't over till it's over!" 
• Don't beat myself up seeking perfection and stay within my limits. 
• I need 8 more great places in my community to leave treasures.
• These places should be open and public. 
• I really like the idea of highlighting places where art might already exists in how they become points of community interest. (electrical boxes, benches, telephone poles are other frequent places for street art to show up)
• I also like the idea of bringing attention to the spaces that aren't used to their full potential. 

My immediate to-do list includes choosing how I will communicate what the treasures are:

• Do I leave a note inside them?
• What will it say?
• I don't want to appear self serving or self promotional though
• Leave just an email? This blog address? My phone number? (Probably not!)
• Do I want to add one more personalized piece to each treasure? I have a lot of trinkets and coins and maybe that would fulfil my need to make it more special than "just some purchased items"?

<3 I hope you're staying warm out there!

Welcome to the Treasure Hunt!

    Hello one and all, and thank you for joining me on this journey!

    Do you remember a time when you found a coin on the ground as a kid? Have you ever spent time at the beach digging through the sand wondering if there was a stash of pirate booty hidden deep below? Have you ever seen a movie where the protagonist finds treasure and thought to yourself "I wish I could find that!"?

    In growing older I feel like that call to adventure and discovery disappears as reality sinks in. Our lives are not exactly the fairy tales we once imagined them to be. The magic fades and responsibilities take over with a general sense that we now understand fact from fantasy. As adults with the vast realities of life coming at us like a speeding truck, and especially now at a time when everyone appears to be struggling in some way, shape or form with regards to their mental health, or finances, or social engagement, wouldn't it be nice to instill a little bit of that childhood magic back into the world?

    Through this blog I will delve deep into the idea that we've been wrong all along about the fantastical nature of hidden treasures. I will taking on the role of pirate, fairy, dragon, or leprechaun, and hide small treasures for people to find myself to answer the question "How could filling the world with hidden treasures impact people, foster community connection, and inspire a sense of magic and mindfulness in everyday life?!" 

    By no means can I afford to stow away life-changing valuable hoards of gold, but each physical treasure will hopefully have an aspect of novelty, uniqueness, and be special in their own right for the person who happens to find it. 

    My big hope is that people may find these small treasures, either by accident or in following a clue on this blog, and feel a little bit of the magic of youth and the excitement of discovery again. More generally, I hope to find out how finding treasures makes people feel; about their experience, and about our shared community.

    I also wonder is whether or not this can have a more profound impact on my local community or even society as a whole. Can treasure hunting or discovery teach the lesson of slowing down, being mindful, and finding an appreciation for our shared spaces? Would anyone who finds a treasure feel compelled or inspired to consider doing it themselves? Can it make a community feel more interconnected and special?

    In the very end at least, regardless of people's engagement and the results of this experiment, I would like to reflect on what it means to me to be the one who hides treasure rather than the one who seeks it out, and consider what it means to live in a world where real physical treasures could be all around us.

My personal collection of treasures