I ran away.

I ran away yesterday. We were out of the house, Molly and I by 7.30am. We went North and then West. We stopped at Pluscarden Abbey.

I really did stop still and silent at Pluscarden. I sat in the church for about half an hour. It was cold and the only sounds were the whispers of other visitors at first. Even they left the church after a few minutes. All I could hear were the sounds of my own breathing and that high buzzing in my ears. As I waited, the birds who were hiding in the building started to flutter and give a quiet chirp.

I prayed. I didn't sing out loud but there were songs in my mind. There were no flashes of blinding inspiration, no big answers to all the world's problems and no pictures of the way the future will be. There was silence and comfort. The comfort had nothing to do with the temperature.

Molly took me walking through the Monaughty Woods. We went to Elgin for lunch. I met my cousin Rae for a coffee and then we walked Molly and Skye along the beach in Lossiemouth at sunset. With the dogs barking and splashing through the waves, and the busy local traffic, that was the noisiest part of the day.

And then I came back to the real world, with a practice meeting.

I suppose running away would usually mean that somebody noticed, but yesterday was enough for me.