Sleeping with Bread: Monday, January 26th

Monday, January 26, 2009

Monday, January 26th

Good day, everyone!

It is a beautiful day where I live. Crispy cold but bright and sunny. Perfect day for a walk. It is amazing how much the weather contributes to my mood.

I am starting my new semester today and am anticipating that I'm going to be a little bit overwhelmed very quickly. I still plan on getting my host posts up, but I will probably be even worse than I already am about doing my own SWB posts and getting around to reading others' posts.

What do the next few months hold for you?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ooooOOOoooo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Although the examen is a Christian practice, 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

6 comments:

Mel said...: Wellllllll.....believe it or not, organizing summer school and teachers--yup, definitely a pro-active kinda gal.

Of course, budgetystuff gets to happen before that gets to..but I don't wanna TALK about that stuff.

Ughhhhh....I think I just did.....; January 26, 2009 1:37 PM
Ladykli said...: I'm new to this so I hope I did it right. I was in the hospital last week. I'm ok now but I look at it as a wake up call or a second chance. Also as a reminder to be thankful for all my blessings!; January 26, 2009 5:13 PM
Tara Lamont said...: Mary -
Best of all in your new semester. Thanks for hosting the SWB, I look forward to Mondays so much due to this writing group.
T; January 26, 2009 6:12 PM
Anonymous said...: This is so good .. i will surely take part in this from next week.. as for this week's question, just one line :

God give me strength to shed my shyness and go to gym !! Its high time i loose fat ! thats what my next few months mean to me ...; January 26, 2009 9:01 PM
annies home said...: I posted on my blog did not know about this meme befor but thanks for sharing this meme with all; January 28, 2009 6:35 AM
Skeeter said...: Hi!

Have posted. Enjoyed reading everyone's "sleeping with bread" posts.

Best wishes,

Skeeter; February 02, 2009 1:14 AM

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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!