Posts Tagged ‘gratitude’

When I was a kid, my Easter basket was filled with Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs, Peeps, and plastic eggs filled with jelly beans that we found on our Easter Egg Hunt.  There might have been a small toy or two, but I really don’t remember those.  I mostly remember getting a new dress and often fancy white gloves and an Easter hat.  I loved going to church dressed in my new clothes.  I remember Easter being such a bright happy holiday.  Was every Easter sunny and warm with lots of flowers in bloom?   Because that is how I remember it.  But somewhere along the way, Easter baskets started getting bigger, filled with iPods and video games and other expensive toys, and kids  started looking at the Easter Bunny as another Santa Claus.  How did that happen?

Well, maybe the downturn in the economy will bring at least a few silver linings… like getting back to the days when Easter was about simpler things.  As a kid, Easter was special because of the things we did, not the things we got.  This weekend I am looking forward to dyeing eggs as a family, the Easter egg hunt at Mamaw and Granddad’s home, spending time with my family, and a delicious Easter dinner.  I love the symbolism of Easter- the end of winter, renewal, and the promise of brighter days.  The Easter Basket is the quintessential symbol of abundance.  Fill it up with good things this year.

If you’re like me and hate to give the kiddie’s too much candy, think about some good old-fashioned small toys, like a jump rope, marbles or jacks?  What about sidewalk chalk and a hoppy taw?

This year I am trying something new. I am filling a basket full of my blessings.  On scraps of paper I have written things that I am grateful for and then rolled them up and put them in plastic eggs alongside the jelly beans:

My husband
My wonderful children
Good Health
Good friends
My Home
Food in my Pantry and on my Table
My garden
My sewing machine

This is just the beginning, my list is so long, but it feels really good to write them down and remember how blessed I am.