Decorating for the holidays is a big thing. Who doesn’t enjoy the glamor and glitz of the holiday seasons?
Sam and Dorothy Worrell, former residents of Geneva, always decorated a little Easter egg tree by their front door. My mother had a Manzanita branch she decorated for a number of years at Easter time as well. Nowhere do I see the amount of decorating for Easter that seems to prevail at Christmas, Halloween and even the Fourth of July.
It was interesting for me to read about an Easter Egg Tree that was decorated in Germany. It made me want to go right out and plant a bushy tree and start tracking down my Easter Eggs again.
The following story is a good one. It tells us how important little things can grow into important big things.
It seems in about 1945 a young lad, Volker Kraft, saw his first Easter tree. So impressed he knew that he too would have to have one for his very own. He married, had a family but that Easter egg tree never left his thoughts. In 1965, he and his wife put out a tree with 18 colored plastic eggs. It became a family tradition. Plastic eggs later made way for real eggs — that were blown out and used so the shells could be beautifully decorated.
As the children grew, they took part in decorating the tree. The children grew older and moved away but needless to say the traditional Easter tree stayed. The grandchildren come home to decorate the now, giant tree. Every year the number of eggs hung on the branches grows and at last count in 2010, the number reached an incredible number of 9,500 Easter eggs!
The tradition still prevails and it takes many people to decorate the tree now. Several weeks before the annual holiday arrives, they start hanging the beautifully decorated eggs on the tree. The tree remains decorated in its full and colorful glory for a week or so following the annual holiday.
Yes, it makes me want to plant an Easter tree and hang it full of eggs of promise. At any rate, the thought is there. The tradition and beauty are beyond compare.
Speaking of tradition and beauty, Lisa Beamer on Good Morning America recently told a story about how an event occurred that opened her eyes, so to speak. She had a very special teacher in high school many years ago whose husband died suddenly of a heart attack. About a week after his death, she shared some of her insight with a classroom of students. As the late afternoon sunlight came streaming in through the classroom windows and the class was nearly over, she moved a few things aside on the edge of her desk and sat down there.
With a gentle look of reflection on her face, she paused and said, “Class is over, I would like to share with all of you, a thought that is unrelated to class, but which I feel is very important. Each of us is put here on earth to learn, share, love, appreciate and give of ourselves. None of us know when this fantastic experience will end. It can be taken away at any moment. “
Perhaps this is the power's way of telling us that we must make the most out of every single day. Her eyes, beginning to water, she went on, “So I would like you all to make me a promise. From now on, on your way to school, or on your way home, find something beautiful to notice. It doesn’t have to be something you see, it could be a scent, perhaps of freshly baked bread wafting out of someone's house, or it could be the sound of the breeze slightly rustling the leaves in the trees, or the way the morning light catches one autumn leaf as it falls gently to the ground. Please look for these things, and cherish them. For, although it may sound trite to some, these things are the "stuff" of life. The little things we are put here on earth to enjoy. The things we often take for granted.”
The class was completely quiet. They picked up their books and filed out of the room silently. That afternoon the students took their teachers advice and noticed more things on their way home from school than they had seen that whole semester.
Remembering the teacher and the impression she made makes me appreciate all of the things we sometimes overlook. Today, do something different, take a walk, stop for an ice cream cone, admire someone’s child or pet. Live. For as we get older, it is not the things we did that we often regret, but the things we didn't do.
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”
Have a great day! God Bless you every day of your life.
Some of our Star Eagle readers have commented they like to read about events such as family or school reunions, birthdays, anniversaries, and birth or wedding announcements. In order to read about these important things, we need our faithful readers to pass along the information to us. If you have news, please contact me.
Also, if our NRHEG Star Eagle readers would like to share birthdays and anniversaries of your family and friends, or you know of some that should be deleted, or names have changed, please contact me via e-mail, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; by postal mail, P.O. Box 192, Geneva, MN 56035 or telephone, 507-256-4405.
Birthdays and anniversaries:
• Thursday, April 26th: Jim Arends, Lester Casterton, Teresa Deml Sisler, Beverly Harpel, Jean Larson, Pat Motl, Ashley Bangert, Mary Peterson, Pat Pichner, Steve & Judy Christensen, Bob & Gerry Flim, Allan & Darline Jensen.
• Friday, April 27th: Brian Schember, Norma Robertson, Heidi & Christopher Olson.
• Saturday, April 28th: Martin Rossing, Rodney Peterson, Mildred Flugum, Jamie Cameron, Jean & Chuck Groth.
• Sunday, April 29th: Derek Anthony Kubicek, his 5th; Jane Brocker, Roberta Dettman, Angie Hall, Mitchell Jensen, Pat & Linda Goodnature, Jennifer & Steve Schultz.
• Monday, April 30th: Nancy Williams, Jeff Misgen, Paul Moen, Dawn Cooper, Kevin Cooper, Jonathon Lein, Karey Dufresne, Judah Ashton, Jonathon Lein, Rick & Melonie Miller.
• Tuesday, May 1st: Carter Levi Titus, Jim Hanson, Shirley Pichner Helgeson, Christopher "Critter" Johnson, his 10th; Luke Dobberstein, Gene Budach, Sandi Otto Glenn, Richard Helmers, Sue Kasper Anderson, Tim Kasper, Norma Long, Cari Jensen, Thomas Van Riper, Veronica & Jim Graif, Heidi & Ryan Baldwin.
• Wednesday, May 2nd: Shayna Kress and Tyler Kress, their 2nd; Jack Benjamin Owen, his 3rd; Diane Smith, Ted Radke, Jill Goodnature Kubicek, Bonnie Shaunce, Stephanie Corey, DeWayne Farr, Nolin Joe Simmons, his 7th; Joshua Nicholas Paulsen, his 9th; Roger Anderson, Gerald & Mildred Flugum, Dean & Carolyn Wangen.
God bless you and have a great day!
