A Year of Gratitude – September 3, 2024

I found my gratitude in a reminder from nature today. It came by way of our hens. Thanks to them, we had fresh eggs to enjoy for breakfast.

It’s the time of year when they slow down their rate of egg laying dramatically. It’s a necessity so that their bodies can prepare for the cold weather ahead. That only makes every egg seem more precious. Scarcity does that. It makes the supply seem more valuable.

After breakfast, I washed out the shells. They’ll dry out on this antique enamel tray I found at an antique store a few years ago. When they have dried, I’ll crush them up and save them to return to our hens. They’ll enjoy the crushed egg shells with their morning scratch and get a boost of calcium.

These olive green eggs are a favorite of mine. We have two hens that leave these gorgeous eggs in the nest box for us. The outside is a lovely soft olive green color while the inside has a blue tint.

The outside color reminds me of my childhood. As a very young girl, we would spend Easter at my paternal grandparent’s house. We would make Easter eggs using the kit from the grocery store. When we got to the final egg, my grandfather would pour a little of each color into a coffee cup to make an olive green color that he called “brinzel brown”.

That egg was special. There was only one of them. There might be two pink eggs, a few purples, at least two or three blues. But there was only one brinzel brown. When you looked at it closely, you could see hints of the colors that had come together to make the olive brown color. It was a tradition I kept up with my children. There was always a brinzel brown egg made in a coffee cup.

Every time I look at these eggs, I think of those brinzel brown Easter eggs. I think of those memories which I hold dear nearly 50 years later.

These olive green eggs came by their color naturally. By morning, the pretty pale blue color will have faded. It will be pale enough to appear white. You’d never know that it had been this pretty unless you made time to see it, to really appreciate it before it had faded away.

That’s a pretty good reminder to get from an egg. If we don’t appreciate what we have today, it might be gone tomorrow. It’s not always easy to do, but I’ve never found myself sorry that I stopped to appreciate something in the moment, that I made time to spend a moment with someone I care about.

Things fade. That’s just part of life. But if we choose to be present with the people and activities we love, we can carry the memories with us forever. Memories can stay as vibrant as we choose to keep them, but you have to make those memories in order to hold on to them forever. They don’t have to be lavish or fancy. They just have to include something or someone you love. I have the memories of those brinzel brown eggs to prove it.

Be present today. For yourself and the people around you. It’s a gift and they’ll carry the memory of it with them for a lifetime.

This post is part of our A Year of Gratitude Series. You can find the introduction, inspiration, and entire year’s gratitude’s posts here.