Sleeping with Bread: Monday, December 21st

Monday, December 21, 2009

Monday, December 21st

Well, my first week back in the saddle and I am LATE!

!!!!!!

(Exclamation points are my new way of, well, exclaiming things. They are short and to the point.)

Most of you know that I was keeping pretty busy for the last six weeks or so finishing up my master's degree. Well, it is FINISHED! I now have a Master's of Science in Education with a concentration in Reading. Yippee!! It feels very good to be done but, as with most journeys in life, I only have a brief respite before the schedule gets busy again.

So, let's get down to Sleeping with Bread, shall we?

I have to confess that there hasn't been too much contemplative thinking going on with me. Sadly, that has diminished somewhat my enjoyment of the Christmas season. When Christmas becomes just about buying gifts and getting "ready" for the holiday, I do not respond very well. When I have time to pull out some of my favorite poems and devotions and to participate in the Advent services at church, I am much more at peace.

This lack of contemplation is something I need to work on. I start teaching part-time in a few weeks. It will be challenging to create lesson plans for two to three college courses. I will also be taking one class to finish up a postsecondary learning certificate. I'll be busy... like I was busy for the last two and a half years with school. However, I have to stop using busyness as an excuse to keep from spending quiet time alone focusing on spiritual things because it has had an impact on my outlook on life. This is, of course, complicated by my mother's death, my sleep apnea, etc.

So, as I approach Christmas and near the end of 2009, I am looking... looking up... looking out... looking within and hoping to start renewing the habit of the practice of contemplation.

I look forward to hearing from you all and reading your Sleeping with Bread posts this week.

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How do you do Sleeping with Bread?

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. We hope you will join in with the fellow bakers as we Sleep with Bread on Mondays!

2 comments:

Tara Lamont said...: Mary-Lue,
So happy you are back! Thank you for kicking off the reflective thinking this week. You have been missed in the SWB neighborhood.; December 21, 2009 6:22 PM
Unknown said...: @Genre Cookshop. Thanks for linking your post, Glitter Hand. I love the poem you included.; December 27, 2009 5:46 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!