Biosphere Vannin photo competition
In our regular feature, authors from different walks of Manx life offer a personal perspective on My Biosphere. This month, Mike Kewley, Mindfulness teacher and author, writes:
It was only when I left the Isle of Man in my early 20s to backpack around India that I began to appreciate its startling beauty. I’d be on the Ghats in Varanasi, longing for Ballaglass Glen or on a 12-hour bus ride through the Himalayas, daydreaming about St. Michael’s Isle.
My surname was a constant reminder of my unique heritage. “Mr. Cooley?” people would ask, and I’d correct them “It’s Kewley, as in Kew Gardens.” My grandfather, Jack, was an oracle of Manx history and he told me we had Viking roots and that our ancestors had been the Kings of Scotland and the Isles. I loved to believe this as a boy, charging around Peel Castle, fighting imaginary foe.
As children, my brother and I would spend hours combing the beaches at Blue Point for fossils and flints or visiting ancient monuments with Jack. This fascination with history sparked a desire to become an archaeologist like my hero, Lawrence of Arabia (and of course, Indiana Jones).
Some of my favourite places include the dunes at the Point of Ayre where we would camp at weekends, Langness, which always made me feel like I was in an episode of The Famous Five, and the ancient stone circle at Meayll Hill. I also have a strong connection with Summer Hill Glen. Long before it became festooned with fairy doors, it was where my family would go for walks, as my brother and I lost ourselves in the undergrowth and splashed in the river, protected by the canopy of tall mystical trees.
Even though I moved back 15 years ago, I’m still discovering this Island. Having children of my own has given me a renewed appreciation for its yellow flowering gorse, perfumed with coconut, and its incongruous palm trees, which lend it a bizarrely Mediterranean feel, even on the wildest of days.
I now live in Onchan, and Port Jack beach is just 5 minutes away. We come here after school or at weekends to climb the rocks, paddle or skim stones. But it’s my walk along the Victorian promenade into Douglas which always feels sublime. The horse-tram clip-clops past, the seagulls swirl through the sky and the Tower of Refuge sits in the bay, like a magical floating castle, buttressed by a towering wall of magnificent white mist.
As I walk past the Castle Mona and watch the metal detectorists scanning the beach for silver sixpences and signet rings, I can’t help but feel that everything is fresh and new and shining with life. I’m glad I finally came home. Who needs a monastery in the Himalayas when the treasure lies in plain sight?
Mike Kewley is a Mindfulness Teacher, TEDx Speaker and the Author of ‘The Treasure House – Discovering Enlightenment Exactly Where You Are.’
Mike’s website is www.mikekewley.com
