Sleeping with Bread: Thankfulness Sweater

Monday, May 23, 2011

Thankfulness Sweater

Image from Wikipedia.

If I could knit, I'd knit a sweater out of the things I'm thankful for. I'd wear that sweater in all kinds of weather. If it was hot, I'd think of the clean water I have to drink. If it was cold, I'd think of the layers of clothing I have to put under my thankfulness sweater. If I was hungry, I'd think of how thankful I'd be for a healthy body that can metabolize food. If I was hurting, I'd think of the loving people in my life and take their affirming words and actions to wrap around me.

Keeping my mind in a place of thankfulness is often not as easy a putting on a sweater when I'm chilly. In fact there have been some chills this last week that are making it hard to think I'll ever feel warm again. But this image of a thankfulness sweater is one that has captured my imagination - and so I'm beginning to think of doing some knitting. I'll need some directions, some lessons and even a pattern for this thankfulness sweater. But what the finished product of knitting thankfulness, or even trying to get a handle on the process of living in this space; is yet to be seen, heard and witnessed.

I will knit a sweater of thankfulness. Stitch by stitch and thread by thread each thankful thing will add up to be something these eyes need to see and this body needs to wear.

1 comment:

Nancy Bea Miller said...: What a holy garment this would be! I really like the idea, and can visualize snuggling into it, wrapping it tighter in times of crisis. ;-); May 30, 2011 8:04 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!