The Joy Of Unearthing Holy Treasures

Dreams. We all have them. I'm not referring to aspirational dreams, like taking a trip to China or blasting off in a spaceship to Mars. I'm referring to sleep and the crazy people and events we encounter during the REM stage of the sleep cycle. No one has figured out yet why we dream, or what any dream means. Science, apparently, has bigger fish to fry.

I've often heard dreams are messages from heaven. Personally, I don't have any evidence of this, but I do believe if a dream makes us stop and think, it's purposeful regardless of its source. Such was the case with the following two dreams I had years ago. They impressed me by their similarity, but also by the nature of their content.

In the first dream, I'm on a private beach as a guest staying at a luxury hotel. In the sand, I stumble upon a buried treasure of coins—rare gold coins in mint condition. I stop to wonder who would bury them but never return to retrieve them.

In the dream, the overwhelming joy of finding such a hidden treasure is quickly overshadowed by my conscience. I'm mindful this find is on the hotel's property, so I must inform the concierge to see if he might know its rightful owner.

The concierge's desk is a full bar with a counter and barstools, seated with guests. It's happy hour and loud with overbloated laughter. When I sit down and tell the bartender what I found, he assures me the coins are mine to keep, but a woman seated next to me has eavesdropped and insists she's entitled to her share of the loot, being that she's a hotel guest, just as I am.

I don't know the woman, but I'm willing to share it with her because I'm generous and eager to help someone in need. End of this first dream.

In the second dream, I'm on another beach—a public one somewhere in the Middle East. It's overcast and breezy. It's quiet and not a soul's in sight. As I adjust my beach towel, I find a partially buried coin. I begin to dig and discover an immense trove of gold coins, each being 3 inches in diameter and very ancient. As I continue to dig, I find a gold crucifix large as an anchor.

I'm awed and beyond thrilled by this divine discovery, and I think, wow, this must have been buried during the Crusades, and it's mine! Digging further, the spoils continue to grow and include lots of paper bills, handfuls upon handfuls, which I stuff into my beach bag.

Then, buried deeper lies a woman's journal. I open it and learn she's died from a tubal pregnancy. I'm not sure why her fortune is buried here, but this time I'm planning to keep it and use it for my own good. That's when a man walks up, notices the journal in my hands, and claims to be the cousin of the deceased and rightful inheritor of her possessions, but I don't trust him and feel threatened by him. Surely, he watched me dig up the treasure, unseen. So I politely tell him I'm willing to discuss it further over a cup of coffee at the nearby hotel. End of the second dream.

The two dreams came weeks apart, but upon waking, both dreams evoked the same question—why would anyone bury their own treasure? And, in both dreams, someone tried to lay claim to it, and I was open to sharing.

I wondered why these dreams, so similar in content, came to me twice. Was there a message I missed the first time? If so, what was the message?

Lately, I've reflected on my purpose in life, and I've come back to these dreams and the act of finding gold, extracting it, and allowing others to share in it.

The term "gold digger" is not flattering, but I've concluded that its meaning should be repurposed because this is who I am. It's what I love to do—find the holy treasures that are buried in people, and inspire them to bring them forth for others to appreciate.

I believe that no matter our background or condition in life, we are each endowed with our own special trove of gold, our own innate gift imbued by the heavens, that all too often remains buried and unseen. 

Whether we abandon ourselves outright or don't believe in our specialness, our gift remains hidden, yet calls to us because it's our own piece of heaven that God aims to display in this earthly life we've been given. In doing so, we light the world, or enlighten it, and make it all the more special, beautiful, and truthful. 

This is my interpretation. If you have additional thoughts about these dreams, I would love to hear them.