It's wonderful to be healthy and strong.

Being acutely aware that I am alone in this world especially since my poor wife passed away and despite the great number of friend I have, I have always looked after my health.

Actually this concern for my own health has been with me since the day I realised the poor condition of my health at the age of nine when I almost died of measles or smallpox; I am now not sure which it was. I was skinny then and with such weakness there were always someone ready to take me on to show his strength.

Having experienced all those sadistic streaks in other people and being aware that parents and big brother are not all the time around to protect the weak child, I knew everything in the long run depends upon me and me alone. Since that day I had gathered knowledge and ways to strengthen and build a healthy body. In other postings I have already written about how I overcome other weaknesses and sicknesses. Today I am still much involved in ensuring my mobility till the day I bade this world farewell.

But all that had been achieved this far could have ended yesterday morning when as i ran and jumped down the Semarak Hill, at a steep portion my foot slipped on a patch of loose sand causing me to slide forward with the body twisting to one side and out of control. I dropped onto my left hip and knocked the side of a knee against a rock. Fortunately, I somehow managed to see the rock and put out my hands towards it just as my body rolled against it. Painfully, I got up but found nothing broken. My shirt at the left shoulder and the back was brown with the soil. Other than the pain at my hip and knee, everything else seem to be fine. I thank God for that. But then, I believed that had I not been exercising my body, jumping, leaping and running on that hill all these years, my bones could have been weaker, more brittle perhaps at sixty-three years of age. Fortunately, I was still agile enough to avoid the rock.

I suppose I would not be as appreciative of the daily exercise I had been putting in if I do not realise that my being not hurt much was the result of it. This morning I was up the hill as usual, again skipping, jumping, leaping, running and walking, treasuring every moment of sweaty movement, knowing how precious being able to be active and agile is. Again, life and God has shown me the value of exercise and health.