Sleeping with Bread: Monday, October 20th

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Monday, October 20th

Last Monday, my consolations were difficult for me to find on my own. Fortunately, I was able to ask for a little help from my blog friends and they came through, providing me with consolations from the silly to the sublime.

One anonymous commenter said this, "One thing that has always amazed me about you, MaryLUE, is your incredible ability to self-reflect, to focus inward, analyze and question who you are and why you do what you do."

Wasn't that a nice comment? I don't repeat it though, for its compliment to me. I repeat it because I think it is at the heart of Sleeping with Bread. Ultimately, each week, we intentionally focus inward and analyze our lives through the lens of a specific set of questions. Doing this helps us to know ourselves and helps us to consider the content of our lives.

I have loved reading people's posts each week. Some people have been regulars and some people, even in such a short time, have come and gone. New people continue to check out this meme. I never fail to take something away from each post. Thank you to everyone who is participating for sharing with us.

autumn divider Pictures, Images and Photos

Although the examen is a Christian practice and I am a Christian, I would hope that anyone who has something to share would feel welcome here.

Also, if you don't have your own blog and would like to participate, share your bread in the comments.

To holding on to what gives life,

Mary-LUE

P.S. That bouncy pumpkin is for Mel.

6 comments:

Mel said...: :-)

HAPPY punkins!!!!! Happy ME!

Ty ty ty!
<--will be going to the punkin patch and locating volunteers for our jack-o-lanters today

:-D; October 20, 2008 5:06 AM
Anonymous said...: Thanks for the warm welcome last week, I think I have a better concept of the concept now. :); October 20, 2008 6:27 AM
Anonymous said...: It's only been a few weeks, but I feel like mine are truly the same all the time:

My children and my husband are what keeps me going, even though I withhold acknowledging that and continue to look elsewhere for reassurance.

The combination of looking in the wrong place plus my own insecurity leads to feelings of discouragement and inertia.; October 20, 2008 9:46 AM
Elizabeth said...: It's my first week - thanks for hosting this. It's already something I look forward to. I quoted pretty extensively your explanation of Sleeping with Bread - hope that is okay. I really wanted people to GET what this is about. Anyway, to summarize - I'm new, thanks for hosting, hope I didn't cross any lines. =); October 20, 2008 5:26 PM
Tara Lamont said...: Happy bread - and trees. Read on you'll see what I mean.
Tara; October 21, 2008 11:38 PM
Unknown said...: Oops! I put this week's (10/27) in last week's linkies! Silly me!; October 28, 2008 8:03 PM

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What is Sleeping with Bread?

During the bombing raids of WWII, thousands of children were orphaned and left to starve. The fortunate ones were rescued and placed in refugee camps where they received food and good care. But many of these children who had lost so much could not sleep at night. They feared waking up to find themselves once again homeless and without food. Nothing seemed to reassure them. Finally, someone hit upon the idea of giving each child a piece of bread to hold at bedtime. Holding their bread, these children could finally sleep in peace. All through the night the bread reminded them, "Today I ate and I will eat again tomorrow." (Linn, Dennis et al, Sleeping With Bread, p.l)

These are the beginning words of a book that introduced me to a practice called the examen. The orphans held on to what nourished them and were thus able to sleep peacefully at night. The examen, based on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, helps a person hold onto what spiritually nourishes him by looking at what is giving him consolation in his life or causing him desolation. It allows someone to express his gratitude to God for the good stuff and turn to him for solace for the bad stuff. It is quite simple. You simply ask yourself, in the last day/week/month what gave me consolation and what caused me desolation.

How do you do it?

Sleeping with Bread is a Monday meme. You can participate in one of two ways: 1) Pick one of the above examen question sets and answer it in the comments section of my SWB post; or, 2) Create your own Sleeping with Bread post. You are welcome to right click on the Sleeping with Bread button and save it to your own computer before uploading into your post. Then, make sure you come back and put the link to your post in the automated Mr. Linky form at the end of the current SWB post. I hope you will join me and my fellow bakers as we Sleep with Bread on Mondays!