A friend and I have a mutual love-fest regarding our blogs. Vikki Lynn Smith is a published author of gorgeous children’s books AND blogs about family and experiences. Yesterday, she posted a blog about treasures she finds on beaches. It was, as always, an incredibly fun and relatable blog that incorporates memories with her children and dogs along with insights that will leave you wondering happily about your own memories.

She asked, in her Facebook post, for readers’ favorite treasures – specifically beach ones. I responded: My favorite beach treasures are the messages I’ve written in the sand, some captured photographically, but all washed away with a wave or two. Memories delivered into the ocean like a message in a dissolving bottle tossed into the surf.

As we tend to do with each other, she replied that she loved my comment and that it seemed like it should be a blog. My response was, “It is. You just wrote it.” Then I started thinking about the treasures she wrote about and memories I’d mentioned.

Treasures are the things that we collect that are scattered about our homes. Even if you’ve never traveled outside your own town, I’ll bet you have a movie stub or a favorite stuffed animal from your childhood, or drawings your children brought home from school. They are tangible memories.

But what about the ones we can’t look at on a shelf (or on the fridge) — those memories of a sand castle that was washed away with a wave; how the kitchen smells when cookies are baking; the tears that stained your pillow after your first heartbreak.

I have a trunk full of memories.

Whether you travel extensively or rarely, memories are the stuff that stirs our souls. Savor them! Dig through the secret stash under your bed or in your closet every now and then and take a trip — without need of tickets or luggage — down memory lane.

There’s a whole world out there just waiting to be explored. Don’t forget to capture memories while you’re exploring it.