Easter Egg
After taking a stroll today in a park by my office that I like to take little breaks in from time to time, I sat down on one of the benches to soak up some of the sunshine we were blessed with today in Southern California. Surveying the park, my eyes focused on a little flash of color wedged between two branches of a small, thin tree. As I walked over to investigate, I noticed the thin wisps of the plastic grass used to line Easter baskets and it dawned on me that there was a good chance I was approaching an unfound, plastic Easter Egg from the day before.
Sure enough, despite the windy day, there sat a yellow, plastic egg, which I supposed was just out of reach of the little arms that were searching for them on Sunday. Inside was a collection of bite sized candies in decorative Spring colors, including a marshmallow egg (with lemon filling, no less) and what I guessed was a malted-milk ball in the shape and color of a robin egg.
Standing in the park on a beautiful spring day, with the sunshine, the light breeze, and a surprise Easter egg I couldnt help but smile. Being just religious enough to celebrate it in the first place and just enough heathen to not bother once the children grew up, my family hadnt really celebrated Easter in years. My kid brother was probably about nine or ten years over the egg hunting years and my first niece wasnt due until late August, so we didnt even bother with a ham this year. In fact, if it werent for the regular showing of the Ten Commandments, I probably would have forgotten about it all together. So it was nice to hold the candy filled egg and remember a time when Easter meant something to me.
This is the lot Ive cast for myself, living the life of a Deist a man without a religion, save the belief that there is a God at all. Sure, my family still celebrates Christmas most of my family still declares themselves Christian in some form or another and my grandmother and great aunt and uncle are still very active in the pageantry, but for me it becomes more a celebration of the family rather than what the church is pushing that day.
But Easter, well, its different I can remember going to church with family and doing the big dinner thing, then being ushered into another room while eggs were hid in back yard of my grandparents old house in Cerritos. Easter was one of my grandfathers favorites, but I think it was because he got to hide the eggs and then hover around the back yard, letting out the occasional helpful whistle when a grandchild was about to walk by an aluminum foil covered prize. The night before he would individually wrap marshmallow peeps and bunnies, as well as a host of other egg shaped chocolates in foil so that they wouldnt get dirty when they were hid in the branches of trees, in planters, and the pots of my grandmothers flower projects around the yard, the man was dedicated.
Now, with the kids planning kids of their own, and most of the family spread out across the country, Easter would just be a day to cook a ham. Not that I would mind, actually, but it seems silly to go through the process if youre not bothering with church. So Easter this year was a collection of short phone calls, catching up on my NetFlix queue, and double checking my taxes.
In the end, I didnt even eat the candy in this little yellow gift, which made me kind of sad to live in a world where candy can be suspicious if you dont know its origin, but I snapped out of that pretty quick. I did keep the egg as a trophy for the first Easter find Ive had in over a decade, however maybe Ill put some of my own candy in it and hide it again, just to get the full effect.
Happy Easter, Passover, and Spring,
Jeff
Sure enough, despite the windy day, there sat a yellow, plastic egg, which I supposed was just out of reach of the little arms that were searching for them on Sunday. Inside was a collection of bite sized candies in decorative Spring colors, including a marshmallow egg (with lemon filling, no less) and what I guessed was a malted-milk ball in the shape and color of a robin egg.
Standing in the park on a beautiful spring day, with the sunshine, the light breeze, and a surprise Easter egg I couldnt help but smile. Being just religious enough to celebrate it in the first place and just enough heathen to not bother once the children grew up, my family hadnt really celebrated Easter in years. My kid brother was probably about nine or ten years over the egg hunting years and my first niece wasnt due until late August, so we didnt even bother with a ham this year. In fact, if it werent for the regular showing of the Ten Commandments, I probably would have forgotten about it all together. So it was nice to hold the candy filled egg and remember a time when Easter meant something to me.
This is the lot Ive cast for myself, living the life of a Deist a man without a religion, save the belief that there is a God at all. Sure, my family still celebrates Christmas most of my family still declares themselves Christian in some form or another and my grandmother and great aunt and uncle are still very active in the pageantry, but for me it becomes more a celebration of the family rather than what the church is pushing that day.
But Easter, well, its different I can remember going to church with family and doing the big dinner thing, then being ushered into another room while eggs were hid in back yard of my grandparents old house in Cerritos. Easter was one of my grandfathers favorites, but I think it was because he got to hide the eggs and then hover around the back yard, letting out the occasional helpful whistle when a grandchild was about to walk by an aluminum foil covered prize. The night before he would individually wrap marshmallow peeps and bunnies, as well as a host of other egg shaped chocolates in foil so that they wouldnt get dirty when they were hid in the branches of trees, in planters, and the pots of my grandmothers flower projects around the yard, the man was dedicated.
Now, with the kids planning kids of their own, and most of the family spread out across the country, Easter would just be a day to cook a ham. Not that I would mind, actually, but it seems silly to go through the process if youre not bothering with church. So Easter this year was a collection of short phone calls, catching up on my NetFlix queue, and double checking my taxes.
In the end, I didnt even eat the candy in this little yellow gift, which made me kind of sad to live in a world where candy can be suspicious if you dont know its origin, but I snapped out of that pretty quick. I did keep the egg as a trophy for the first Easter find Ive had in over a decade, however maybe Ill put some of my own candy in it and hide it again, just to get the full effect.
Happy Easter, Passover, and Spring,
Jeff