The Trash for Treasure Foundation

The Trash for Treasure Foundation is a life long project or maybe even a mindfulness practice that I began focusing on during the Summer of 2009 in Truckee, Ca.  It was the first summer after I began attending University at Cal Poly on the central coast.  It was a great summer based around deepening my knowledge of the native plants, the natural geography and history of the Tahoe basin. It was done by the immersion technique of spending as much time as possible as simply as possible in nature.  I found in myself a natural instinct of wanting to collect rocks, flowers, driftwood, seeds, and many other magical treasures that can be found in nature.

After taking a few beautiful quartz pieces from a newly explored high elevation lake basin i noticed a slightly negative feeling arise when reflecting on the beauty of this one particular piece that i had found in a truly sacred place.  The next opportunity I had I rushed back to this spot with many of my treasures I had taken throughout the summer of exploration.  After returning to this special area I felt a great weight lift off my body as my body felt realigned.  As I fiddled trying to figure out what to do with theses treasures, a message come through my heart from a cool crisp breeze upon my neck.  I translated the message as a proposal of sorts as a deal with Our Earthly Divine Mother.  The deal was this, I could collect a reasonable amount of treasure on each adventure on the account that I will pick up an equal or greater amount of pieces of trash.  I  showed my acceptance of this deal by creating a medicine wheel honoring the 7 directions with about half of the pieces of treasure.  The other half have continued with me on my journey. Many of them I still have to this day, displayed as a sacred alter in Truckee, Ca.

Throughout the years of traveling many have of these treasures have been collected and later given to friends that help to serve as a material memory of wonderful time spent together under the sun and stars.  This process of giving pieces of treasure to friends transformed naturally as I continued to explore new places and new treasures.  Some of these beautifully crafted stones, shells and sticks had more of a story to share and asked me to do more with them.  That is when I evolved as an artist and began experimenting with wire wrapping of stones and shells to building driftwood murals using hemp.  Implementing a process of using minimal and simple resource that will honor and respect the natural beauty of the piece.

As adventures begin and end I am grateful to have a few very special momentos of the sacred places of the Earth that I Have been fortunate enough to experience.  As I continue to build my relationship with the planet by learning new practices of mindfulness like meditation, yoga, and surfing I notice my connection growing stronger to the energy and abundance of the planet that I am grateful to call home. This has helped me to create the mentality that the amount time to I spend out of doors is directly related to my health and well being.  This allowed me to prioritize unplanned, uninhibited, unexpected time in nature.

Sharing of this story is not meant to approve the removal of objects from their natural resting place on this earth, but to create a culture of respect based on an understanding of human impacts on the natural world and to give the power back these sacred objects. As I shared in the above story, this is a lifetime long promise that I made that, I will do as much as I can to reduce my human footprint that I create while experiencing heaven on earth.

I would like to share this story with the world as well as the mentality and appreciation of our planet by organizing beach, neighborhood, and watershed clean ups.  A future idea would be to add a therapy crafting session on site in nature as a way to invoke the creative process of art that honors and respects the sacred.

Thanks for taking the time to look into my world

Jabroniejoe