tuning in and dropping out

i had a great day at Stanton House yesterday and i only fell asleep once (briefly) - honest! one of the things i learnt is that i can sometimes go on days like that and just expect to click my fingers and hear God's voice. i think i started off the day yesterday a bit like that. but, paradoxically, I felt God speak to me on the subject of him speaking to me! I think it's to do with cultivating the art of hearing God. i can't just expect to not live a prayerful life and then decide to go away for the day and hear God. It's an art that I need to develop. So, it's not a case of God being obstinate and refusing to talk to me because i haven't talked to him for a while. it's more a case of me not being able to hear him even though he wants to talk.
i think that at the moment it feels a little like i get an occasional e mail from God but it's person-to-person communication that we both want. we all know the trouble with e mail communication : you can't pick up inflections in people's voices, you can't read their body language etc. I want to get to a point where I am much more attuned to the subtleties of what God is wanting to say to me...and the only way I can do that is to cultivate a life of prayer rather than to expect it all to happen easily on quiet days. Having said all of that, i did feel that God spoke to me yesterday. It was when I went for a walk (I am learning that I often find it much more helpful to do something active whilst praying). He reminded me of some things that he said to our team at the beginning of last month and helped me to have a deeper understanding of some things that are happening now. which was nice.