Yesterday, a friend (and fellow SuperMom) told be about Geocaching.

Self-proclaimed as the world’s largest treasure hunt, it’s an ingenious prompt to get you (and me) outside, moving and exploring.

Using the Geocaching app you can identify a hidden cache in and around your current location.  For example, there are hundreds within a few miles of our hometown of Billerica, Massachusetts (and apparently millions around the world).

Each cache varies in size, shape, and contents.  Some are hidden in plain sight, some require bushwhacking. All contain treasures.  And upon finding a cache and taking one treasure, you leave another for the next treasure hunter.

This week I felt so distant from recovery and discovery that I took this “shortcut” into exploration as a sign that it could be easy to get on track again.  Hell, it came with an app.

So, following a family gathering this afternoon, I logged into the Geocaching app and turns out there was a cache less than a half-mile from our current location.  My husband, Ken and four year-old, Briggs were both all in.

Minutes later we found ourselves on a trail behind the Billerica Country Club (we’re we’ve been dozens of times) that until this afternoon was invisible to us.  We followed the digital compass, a couple of clues, and then off the trail “across from the U and by the big stump” Briggs and I found our first cache.

An old ammo box – great to withstand the elements – chock-full of notes and goodies.  Briggs picked up a cool new pair of kiddo shades and our family left a polished stone etched with “strength.”

I walked out feeling better.  Lighter.  Funner.  I remembered that there are worlds within worlds just waiting to be brushed up against.  And that it’s never too late to get out, start again, and just keep looking.