For example, our readers and retreatants often come to us with questions such as, "Should I change my job?" or "What can help me with my depression?" We usually suggest they spend the next month focusing each day on the examen questions. Such people often return a month later having discovered, from their own experience of consolation and desolation, exactly what they should do more of and less of in order to resolve their problem and find new life.
Since we began teaching the examen process to families, many parents have returned to tell us how it enabled their children to discern what they really wanted in life rather than be manipulated by peer pressures to look for happiness in possessions, drugs, etc. These children, for whom reflecting on their daily experience has become a habit through the examen, have grown up to be centered and self-confident leaders who are able to help create a world filled with life. They have also maintained close ties with their parents, perhaps in part because the examen builds a climate of trust and intimacy in which the most significant events of the day are shared.
Such families encouraged us to write a simple adaptation of our book on the examen for adults, Sleeping with Bread, which they could share with their children and grandchildren. We hope this children's book based on a true story of what healed traumatized orphans during World War II, will help children everywhere to heal their hurts and create a nonviolent world where we can all give and receive life and love. Includes a section for parents and other caregivers at the end to help guide them in supporting their children.
