So I posted my reflection...

and, as seems to happen again and again, the bread cast onto virtual water came back a thousandfold...
I'm reading responses, and finding myself inspired and challenged and warmed again and again. Truly, the virtual retreat is a rich medium for exploration, prayer and growth and I'm so glad to have had company as I've engaged with these passages across the course of today. My thanks to all who've posted and responded and posted some more...your words have been a blessing.

This morning the contemplation of mountains and molehills seems particularly fruitful - after all, it is the time of year for that - so as I attempt to manage my own tendencies here I'm looking at the wise practice of Sue, as recorded by Juniper.
First thing in the morning, sit at your desk
Pray
THEN make a list for the day - and trust that when things go awry, and very little from that list is accomplished, the diversions are not disasters, and might even sometimes be of God

Temperamentally I am "list averse" though I rather admire those whose lists help and support them - and maybe the odd list, prayed through, might be a weapon in the battle against prevailing chaos.
Meanwhile, I'm pondering an issue that She Rev raises - how easy it is in public ministry to lose track of your own relationship with God amid the work of encouraging that relationship for others. That's a risk that I recognise - certainly my sense of connection with God is strongest when I am doing the public things - well, pretty much when I'm presiding at the Eucharist. What a blessing that I belong to a church accused of Eucharist with chips, it's so very central to our worshipping life...though I guess that if that opportunity for deep connection were not available to me, God would surely find another route. But I do know that, unless I take time out, it's much harder to attend to God on a personal level regularly...there's so much STUFF, somehow.

Later in the day, Songbird offered a reflection on the Magnificat, which included the concept of childbirth as "A disturbing joy"...Together with Juniper's question
What is God calling you to give birth to in this advent season?
that suggests a road ahead that I'd not thought of travelling.I guess I thought I knew where I was going, and had a clearish map of the terrain...but those complimentary reflections on the role of Mary remind me to be open to the possibility of God breaking in, unlooked for.
Juniper left us with a challenge

Imagine beginning each day with the prayer "let it be with me according to your word." How might such a prayer alter the rhythm of your days?

My Advent aspiration is to come to pray that with integrity - and to accept that so praying may leave me open to all sorts of unexpected diversions, the exalting of valleys and levelling of mountains...and new birth unlooked for.