Sleeping with Bread: Monday, March 30th

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Monday, March 30th

Is it just me or is March a very, very, very long month? Very long.

This last week has presented a few challenges for me and now I am looking forward to April, to that methaphorical tearing off of one page on the calendar. A new month with new possibilities.

I've not been writing SWB posts over at my blog. I thought I might during Lent but it just hasn't worked out. I will do a quick list in emulation of Tara, a faithful participant in our meme.

Consolations of the week:

A walk

My husband's solicitness

A good teaching experience

Desolations of the week:

Sick daughter

Reminder of the vagaries of working relationships

Only one walk

A good friend moving away

As usual, there is ALWAYS good to counterbalance the bad. But still... I'm looking forward to April.

How about you? You ready for a new month?

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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:

Anonymous said...: mine's up "here"; March 29, 2009 9:52 PM
Mel said...: *sigh*

Is it April yet?; March 30, 2009 5:16 AM
ashley said...: I think that Mondays are hard enough, so having FIVE of them in any given month is cruel.; March 30, 2009 10:43 AM
Tara Lamont said...: March is LONG! Thanks for the comment Mel - I've missed you!
Tara; March 30, 2009 12:17 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!