White Lion sanctuary at Sandown – is this rare species facing a caged future? Mags MacKean blog © It was a biting wind, fresh from the arctic. This part of the Isle of Wight is usually sheltered from the prevailing south-westerlies. Not that day. The icy blasts tore straight over the beach into the car […]
It was Friday evening – and I was saturated with the coverage of President Donald Trump’s inauguration. His repeated election pledge, to “make America great again”, flowed on from a picture of a diseased nation: a “carcass” wasteland of outdated industry, gangs, poverty and the forgotten. Transformation wasn’t being promised through examples of past triumphs, […]
The Somerset Levels are moody even on ordinary days. As dull light flattens the wetland’s subtle variations, its features stand out all the more distinct: Glastonbury Tor looming beyond the marshes, reeds, lone trees and numberless birds of varied kinds. Among them, Peregrines, Fowl, Marsh Harriers, Snipe and Redshanks. The Levels are famed for the […]
The Power of Slow, Steady Change, + a ritual to inspire a new story Every manifest creation has birthed over time. This stream in the Lake District lit up in the blazing winter sun as twisting gold. It looked so mesmeric through the car window that I pulled up onto the verge, and scrambled over […]
Have you noticed how your desire to create – to put your dreams into action – can inspire a raft of excuses, doubts, distractions and competing priorities? Not enough time, space, quiet or money. Being needed elsewhere. Looking after other people. There’s always tomorrow, next week, month or end of the school holidays. Right? With […]
It was a simple instruction, fraught with tension: take the Jubilee Line three stops and alight at Westminster. Navigating escalators, long pedestrian tunnels, herded into carriages assault the senses at the best of times. Factor in an all-American group of 33 teenagers, 16 adults, most of whom had never set foot on the tube, and […]
Workshop: Transformational breathing: fast-track to wellbeing, vitality & inspiration Practise THREE simple breathing techniques – and explore their impact on your state of mind, your inner being and physicality: * 4-4-4 breath * Kundalini breath or ‘breath of fire’ * Accelerated breathing – or “conscious breathwork” Conscious breathing will empower you to: * manage anxiety […]
The nature of adventure: embracing risk. Mags MacKean (c) Many dream of the thrill of stripping life – and all its pressures – to the basics: heading off on a long distance hike. The rewards are in its promise: relying on strength, stamina and the vision to see a route through – to complete a […]
When The Door Jams. Short story by Mags MacKean Weariness makes her confused – at least that’s how she explains boarding the wrong train. She is too surprised to feel anything like annoyance. That comes later. For now, she is washed out, spat out, gazing at an unremarkable platform without the promise of anything to […]
Mexico, Building Works & the Serpent of Light When theme plays out in every area of life…. Closing my eyes to really settle, mind still, the roar of breaking waves rises first as memory. At once, I’m in Mexico, on the beach in Tulum facing east towards the Caribbean Sea. It’s windy season and […]