[Note: I first wrote this as part of a "Monday Morning Meditation" to be shared with my colleagues at Children's Wisconsin. It was originally shared in September of 2019. Enjoy!]
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As part of our
bedtime routine, my young daughter, June, and I have started praying an adapted
toddler version of the Examen. The Examen is a lovely Jesuit prayer technique
that involves these 5 steps:
1.
Become aware of God’s presence.
2.
Review the day with gratitude.
3.
Pay attention to your emotions.
4.
Choose one feature from the day and pray on it .
5.
Look toward tomorrow. (https://jesuitprayer.org/examen/
)
Specifically, my
daughter and I tend to focus our prayer around gratitude. As we lay in bed, I
ask her, “Junie, what are you grateful for today?” When she was a few months over
two and just starting to actually string together words as sentences, she once
answered me, “I’m grateful for my OWN SELF!” I laughed so hard, gave her a
kiss, and told her she should always be grateful for her own darling self. I
will never forget that little voice proclaiming her love for herself.
As adults, we are
often prone to self-doubt. Earlier this morning, a mother of one of my infant
patients just exclaimed that she is always her worst critic. How common is
this? How often do you find yourself second-guessing your recommendations or
focusing on your “areas of growth” rather than on your strengths? We constantly
feel pressure to be better, to be smarter, to do more—as providers, as
employees, as parents, as friends, as daughters and sons.
“You
yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and
affection”
– Buddha
Be well, dear ones!
– Buddha
Be well, dear ones!
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