Today I walked 8 Miles, or there about, with my partner in crime. it was a four hour walk to Old Lonan Church, a surprisingly pleasant walk, with plenty of scenery and things to take in.
Although I only live about 3 miles from the Old Church, I had never been there to my memory, I was taken back by its simple, elegant, and tastefully understated shrine and diminutive nature, although the grounds are having some work done to them for better car parking, gates, and drystone walls made, for a more serene atmosphere, it seams like a hidden treasure, an unsung piece of history not known about or appreciated by enough of the locals as a place for calm.
However, all this places a problem in ones hands, how do you tell the world of the peace to be had somewhere without ruining that very piece?
The whole walk from the A2 around the side road leading to the church into Groudle Glens Railway line, onto the coast road and then along Bibaloe Beg Road back to the A2 to head back into Onchan, was surprisingly unmanned, sure there were some people passing along, running, on a bike or in a car, but these were not all that common and mere chance passing's, not a moment of sharing with a stranger more than a "hello", or "lovely day isn't it!" which, despite observing a greater inclination for communal isolation due to a growing fear of crime, or loss of innocence - during Christmas when I didn't see one child out test riding the new bike, nor have I for a number of years - it was refreshing to share a hello with those sharing nothing more than existing with life.
This "existing with life" seamed to be a theme of the walk in general, from conversing with my partner about organ donation, death, and the pros/cons of cremation and burial, and what each of us want when we die only brought a heightened awareness of the time which was being lived, taking mental snap-shots of the moments being shared, the time we have and the closing in of the end of a period we both will have to face together, followed by that dreaded sense of loss and separation from a loved one.
Although I only live about 3 miles from the Old Church, I had never been there to my memory, I was taken back by its simple, elegant, and tastefully understated shrine and diminutive nature, although the grounds are having some work done to them for better car parking, gates, and drystone walls made, for a more serene atmosphere, it seams like a hidden treasure, an unsung piece of history not known about or appreciated by enough of the locals as a place for calm.
However, all this places a problem in ones hands, how do you tell the world of the peace to be had somewhere without ruining that very piece?
The whole walk from the A2 around the side road leading to the church into Groudle Glens Railway line, onto the coast road and then along Bibaloe Beg Road back to the A2 to head back into Onchan, was surprisingly unmanned, sure there were some people passing along, running, on a bike or in a car, but these were not all that common and mere chance passing's, not a moment of sharing with a stranger more than a "hello", or "lovely day isn't it!" which, despite observing a greater inclination for communal isolation due to a growing fear of crime, or loss of innocence - during Christmas when I didn't see one child out test riding the new bike, nor have I for a number of years - it was refreshing to share a hello with those sharing nothing more than existing with life.
This "existing with life" seamed to be a theme of the walk in general, from conversing with my partner about organ donation, death, and the pros/cons of cremation and burial, and what each of us want when we die only brought a heightened awareness of the time which was being lived, taking mental snap-shots of the moments being shared, the time we have and the closing in of the end of a period we both will have to face together, followed by that dreaded sense of loss and separation from a loved one.