Getting Lost in the Woods

Have you ever been on vacation, or on your way to a retreat, or even simply looking forward to a quiet day at home when something unexpected disrupts everything? Maybe a pipe bursts and you find yourself calling plumbers.  A phone call from a loved one that they’ve just received a difficult diagnosis. A loved one dies.  An emergency at work. Or maybe you are just sitting down for some quiet time, when a young child wakes up from what was supposed to be a nap, and demands your attention. We’ve all experienced unexpected disruptions, often just as we were getting ready to take some precious time for self care. It probably happens far more often than we would like to think about.  Let’s face it, our lives are complex; our relationships matter; our work and ministries provide a sense of purpose, and so we do what we need to do.  So you can imagine what it must have been like for Jesus and the disciples when we meet them in today’s gospel.  Earlier in Mark 6, the twelve disciples were commi