Sleeping with Bread: Monday, March 1st

Monday, March 01, 2010

Monday, March 1st

It's still Monday! I actually made a point of putting a reminder on my calendar, but this is the first time today I've had a chance to post... at least, the first time when I could write reflectively. So, let's get this party (um, contemplative party) started.

*****

Serendipitous

Coincidental

Fortuitous

These are words which might describe an experience I had last week. They might.

Last week was tough. Very tough. My husband was out of town for several days. I was behind on grading and really needed to get some assignments to students. I found out that someone got some preferential treatment under some circumstances that angered me. I was at a very low, stressed out point. Can you guess what happened? It got worse. The details are very personal and I would share some of it, but it involves other people, both the living and the dead and this space is too public.

I had so much to do on The Day It Got Worse that I really had to work to keep from letting myself feel the hurt. The next day, though, I was still really busy but something happened.

I was at my daughter's school, dropping something off at the class she was in last year. As I approached the class, there were two moms from that class who spotted me. I hadn't seen them much because of my new job. They called out a greeting and we said hello. They walked toward me to give me a hug and the dam burst. Burst. I went from happy to see them to sobbing in a micro-second. It was horrible... and wonderful. These two beautiful women immediately surrounded me and hugged me and started comforting me. Lo and behold, ANOTHER woman walked up. This woman knows quite a bit of my personal history. She joined in the Comfort Fest.

I can't tell you how much I needed all that at that moment. Right now, my long-time friends (as opposed to these wonderful moms who are more recent friends) are all at very busy points in their life. All but one of them lives far enough away to make seeing each other rare. I can, of course, call them at any time, but there is something about the comfort of friends right in front of you that is not the same as their being on the phone. My husband was out of town. I was sad and hurt and lonely.

And then I had that serendipitous moment... that coincidental meeting... that fortuitously timed exchange... and maybe that was all it was. In the book of Matthew it says the Lord... "causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." Maybe there was just a little sunshine for me that day.

Or it could have been the Lord's intervention... the Lord's blessing... the Lord's special timing.

I don't know what you think it was, but I know which one I think it was.

*****

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

No comments:

Post a Comment

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!