Sleeping with Bread: Monday, February 2nd

Monday, February 02, 2009

Monday, February 2nd

One month down, eleven to go! I have reached an age where time seems to move so quickly it makes me dizzy. It doesn't seem to matter if I am busy or not; time just keeps speeding up!

I've been thrilled to see new "faces" joining us here at Sleeping with Bread. I hope you newcomers enjoy... is that the best word? ... benefit from participating. I've said before and it remains true that Sleeping with Bread has had a significant impact on my life. I hope it does yours, too.

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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

4 comments:

Pamela said...: I hear ya about time moving quickly. Every year goes by a little quicker.

I'm really enjoying Sleeping with Bread. It helps me to review the past week and find something positive about it to focus on. It also helps to pick one negative aspect of the week and contemplate ways to turn it around.

Thank you SO much for hosting this!; February 02, 2009 8:04 PM
Anonymous said...: I'm just joining this week, although I'm doing mine on Fridays. I'll add it here on Monday.; February 09, 2009 10:05 AM
Anonymous said...: oops, just realized this is from last week. Will repost when new one gets up.; February 09, 2009 10:08 AM
Mel said...: It's all good 'unfinished'!

Welcome! And thank you for sharing your bread with us.; February 09, 2009 1:01 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!