Blue Journal #11 - How Did This Happen, Eggzactly?

Today I needed an afternoon-filling job to pass the time until the ball.......well, maybe I shouldn't mention the football game.  So I decided to take all of my egg collection out of the cabinet, clean the eggs, clean the shelves and doors, and rearrange all the eggs into a more pleasing arrangement.
This egg collection began back in the late 1970's or early 1980's.  One weekend when Don was away busy doing athletic director duties, Don's mother and step-dad (or Grandma Madge and Grandpa Corky as we always called them)  invited me to go along with them to an antique show at the Indianapolis state fair grounds.
So I happily went along and was enjoying looking at all the booths, when I decided that maybe I should start collecting something, so that my shopping trips like this one would have a purpose. Grandpa C. collected oriental pottery so we were visiting a lot of oriental dealer booths.  It was also a week or so before Easter so that there were a lot of collectible eggs displayed in all the booths.  Eggs?  Collect eggs?  Well, why not.  Many of them were very beautifully decorated, many were quite inexpensive, and they were small.  It seemed like all the important criteria for my new hobby collection.
These were two of the first eggs I bought:  pretty color, a bit oriental, inexpensive.

Then Grandma M. and Grandpa C.  bought me a few to add to my collection.

Grandpa actually made the little twig egg stand to go with the hand-blown glass egg on the left.
Well, it seemed like no time at all, just as most collections do, this one had grown all out of
hand.
POW...It looked like THIS!

I often think that I need to sort out and get rid of some of these....make the collection more manageable.  But then there comes the days just like today when I take each one out, clean it, admire it, and they remind me of all these things:

The love of family who have lovingly selected a beautiful egg to add to my collection.

All the exotic places family have visited, and the talented artisans who have created such unusual works of art.

Why, the silver one actually plays a chime that is hidden in side when it is shaken.  
I think of good friends who have so thoughtfully selected just the right beautiful egg as a gift.

And I think of all the many trips we have taken where I have brought back just the right egg to remind me of a perfect time.  Some trips were far away like Disney World or that little German Village area in Columbus, Ohio, or Holmes County Amish Area.  
But many were just our little day trips to antique malls, flea markets, or sales. But those little eggs always remind me of happy times.

I guess that is a great paying dividend earned from such a little hobby.