Sleeping with bread

There was much that moved me at the Methodist Women in Britain gathering last weekend. I really liked that we were encouraged to connect from the get-go, by being asked not what our names were, but to share a time we felt like giving up. Powerful stuff.

At one workshop I discovered a book that I’ve not fully read, but had a good flick through, entitled “Sleeping with Bread: Holding what Gives you Life” by the Linn family. The title is borne out of experiences of children who had survived concentration camps who then struggled to sleep. When given a piece of bread to hold, sleep came more easily as they were better able to hold onto the knowledge that they had eaten that day and there would be food the next. In a similar way, the book encourages us to think what we can hold onto, what it is that gives us life.

I’m very lucky – most nights my children want to sleep in my bed, so I am literally able to hold onto the most precious things in my life. And a while back a wise friend encouraged me to turn my mind to 3 blessings of the day so that I fall asleep thankful rather than lie agitated or desolate.

Steering our minds isn’t always easy, but there is much to be grateful for, and I’m always much happier when I’m focussed on the love rather than the fear, funnily enough!