Treasures in my Empty Bowl

Sitting on top of my dresser is a beautiful blue bowl that I bought from the Empty Bowls tent at the National Cathedral's Flower Mart some 15 years ago. I empty my pockets into this bowl at the end of my teaching day. 

Buttons, marbles, erasers, dice, rubber bands, dominoes... stuff I stick in my pockets to empty my hands, or to tidy a table, or to remove a distraction during class... a tiny yellow ducky, a piece of soapstone, a piece of chalk, a bolt... stuff I meant to put away, but won't miss for a while...

Two sorts of things don't stay in my bowl: the notes I write to myself as reminders, and things that I confiscate but promise to return "if you remember to ask me before the end of the day." The notes I deal with, and toss. The treasures I put next to my keys to return to school next day.

On May 2nd, I reached into my pocket and found two blue rectangular tiles which I'd picked up off the ground during the construction of our concrete number path at school. I put them in my bowl. Over the weekend, I saw them and thought, "I wonder if those could be earrings?"

All day long, students and fellow teachers noticed them and asked, "Are those tiles? From our stepping stone path? Did you make them? How?"

I have a lot of leftover tiles. I think I can imagine a few more ways to make tile earrings...