The boy asked him, “how do I find what I’m looking for?” The old man replied, “Boy, you’ve heard it said that where your treasure is your heart will be also?”
“Yes,” the boy replied.
“Many, having misunderstood the meaning of that phrase, have sought treasure in order locate their heart. They’ve followed the rainbow hoping to find a pot of gold, only to find tiredness and disappointment. They feel tricked.
Others, more wise, thought the phrase was warning them, encouraging them what to value in life. Thinking the heart would become wrapped up in whatever you choose to focus on—what you choose to treasure. Though better meaning can come from this, it is still making the heart a moldable thing that can be fashioned by objects and finite things. This is not so. True for the mind. Not so for the heart.
The heart is the wellspring of life. Activated, followed, given freedom; it is the creator of life and meaning. All the riches life can offer—without the heart—leave us empty. Gold turns to pebbles. Power turns to pain. And love, yes even love, without the heart, leaves us longing.”
“So what should I make of that phrase sir?” Asked the boy. “How do I find my treasure?”
“That is the word we’re all hung up on Son—Treasure. An allusive devil that word. The heart doesn’t lead you toward rainbow roads with pots of gold at the end. It’s not a compass, a tool used to help you get what you want. No, it ads color to every step you take, painting as you go, turning rain drops into rubies;
clouds into canopies;
sorrow into joy and darkness into light.
It finds purpose in pain and laughter in heart ache.
In the valley of the shadow of death it feasts, preparing a banquet, making friends of its enemies
It leads you along right paths because, with the heart, every path becomes yours.”
The old man turned and gently placed his finger on the buys chest and said, “You’ve heard it said that where your treasure is there your heart will be also. But my boy, I tell you, follow your heart…and you will find your treasure.”