Appreciation of the wonders and beauty of nature.

Life would be so much poorer without the joys of appreciation; appreciation for our loved ones, our friends, the wonderful world around us and the beauties which surrounds us.

Modern life has caused lives to become more hectic. However, does that mean that we cannot find the time to stop and feast our eyes on the beauties that are so evident in this world? Do we find time to stop and draw in the fragance of the flowers. Have we noticed the beautiful patterns, shapes and design of nature? When was the last time we look up into the wondrous, everchanging canvas of nature, the sky? Would not life be so dull without such appreciation.

Certainly, life cannot be one tedious stretch of money earning. Life should never be just hoarding money. I am not saying that money does not have its importance but when we allow it to overide every other joy and happiness in life, then life can become meaningless.

The wonders of nature are evident around us. Look at the plants, the numerous types, some with their own unique flowers and fruits.

One such plant is the Cannon-Ball tree I saw in the Botanical Gardens in Penang Island, Malaysia.

Its botanical name is Couroupita guianensis and it is from the Lecythidaceae family. This tree originated from Guyana.

You see, beauty of plants transcends human borders, race and religion and serves all mankind. That is something, humans can learn from plants.


Look at its flowers. What red waxy beauties! Yes this tree is a fantastic flowering tree which bears large pinkish red, fragrant waxy flowers borne on long woody twigs.

Flowering continues for many weeks. Then, the flowers are pollinated and the tree bears cannon-ball fruits; large brown ball-like fruits the size of the human head. This fruit contains a mass of sour smelling pulp which takes about 8 months to ripen. It is not known whether the fruit is edible.

Nevertheless, wow! Look at those big cannon balls!





This Cannon-Ball tree is a fast growing tree which can reach about 25 metres in height. The leaves have a life-span of six months, after which they are shed so that the top of the tree is usually bare for a day or two. This sheding of the leaves takes place as it flowers and bears fruits.



Unless we are so poor that we practically live from hand to mouth, let us not work to the extent that we do not live. After all, life is for living. Let us enjoy life by appreciating the wonders and beauty of nature,loving nature for the joys it brings and in the process enrich our lives.

No Healthy Earth, No Healthy Us!

Perhaps, nobody has ever shown you something as mundane as the water from a waterfall and the river below it. Let's watch it. Think of the soothing sound of cascading water as it rushes down onto the rocks below. Look at the calming patterns of the flowing water as it moves down the stream. Watch the water go around rounds easily and gradually slows its pace and carries on unhurriedly towards its destiny, singing softly as it goes along in tune with nature. And I know it, you must have wondered how I could call that a river. I know. I know. In actual fact, it was a river until human beings had the temerity to renovate it into a big, rocky drain. Well, that the trouble with humans. They think they can do a better job than nature. As a result, we have cut down too many trees, remove too many hills, drove a lot of animals out of their homes and destroyed so much natural beauty besides endangering so many animal lives. And nature, pushed against the wall is already fighting back with melting snow, threatening to raise the level of the water on land and in so doing, lessen the amount of land around the coast. Actually, I was being dramatic. Nature did not fight. There is no need to. When the earth can no longer sustain life, we are the ones to die. The earth remains to lick the wound we had inflicted and without us around to cause further damage, the earth will heal itself. Trees will grow, oxygen will be plentiful, carbon will decrease, the ozone layer will thicken and its holes will be patched up again, no more green house gases, temperature will be normal again and the ice-bergs at the poles will stop melting. It was our own foul deeds that caused the green-house gasses which over-warmth the earth causing the melting of ice in the poles. With more water surface, there is increased evaporation and the return of the evaporated liquid as rain, causing flood in various parts of the world. On the other hand, with less shade as a result of deforestation, there is greater heat burning up the earth. So, despite the amount of rainfall, the world gets hotter and hotter. This is aggravated by the destruction of the ozone layer reulting in holes in the ozone layer. These holes allow more skin-harming, cancer-causing ultra violet rays to penetrate to the earth surface. Indiscrimate burning of rubbish and forest, burning of petrol and use of air-conditioners have cause an increase in carbon in the atmosphere and this has created the release of green house gasses. Thus, there is an increasing amount of carbon dioxide and lesser oxygen due to our destruction of nature's oxygen producing factories, the trees. Fortunately for our world, there are some who are aware of the harmful effects of our actions. The United Nations with 189 country heads firmly committed to work together to build a safer, more prosperous and equitable world for all by 2015, it started its Millennium Campaign with the Millenium Development Goals initiated at its September 2000 Millenium Simmit. One of the goals was 'Ensure Environmental Sustainability'. The Art of Living Foundation together with the United Nations' Environment Programme, World Alliance for Youth Empowerment and Sri Sri Agricultural Institute for Science & Technology came forward in support of the United Nations Millenium Campaign. Through 'Mission Green Earth, Stand Up Take Action' The Art of Living, in 2008, began to call for people's support for the planting of trees and reporting on their growth. So, don't neglect our earth. This earth needs us just as we need this earth. No healthy earth, no healthy us! That is the simple truth we are faced with. So, it's up to everyone of us to help the earth heal itself.

Cultivate the habit of listening.

If someone has some knowledge, can you obtain it without listening. You probably can if the person is a writer.

We meet so many people in our life time. Some of them possess experiences beyond our reach. How then can we get such knowledge? as I have said, unless the persons are writers, the only way to get such knowledge is to listen carefully, attentively to what the person is willing to divulge.

How much is the person you are listening to, willing to divulge. It all depends upon the interest in the person and his or her talk. Have you noticed how people clamped up the minute the listener's attention is being distracted or turned to another direction? Unless the speaker is one who loves to hear his own voice so much that he is willing to listen to it thrown at nobody in particular, a stop to the flow of information is bound to happen when the listeners are not attentive.

So often have I learned things because I was attentive to complete strangers who happened to cross my path at certain stops in my life.

Recently, for example, I attended a demostration and learned how to make basic soap. Eager to try my hand at making goat's milk soap, I bought all the necessary materials and equipment to find that somehow it did not materialise as it should.

Listening around, I gained further knowledge and eventually succeeded in making the soap. That shows the importance of listening in gathering information.

Therefore, we ought to teach our children to listen. Never tell them that they must listen whenever people speak. People, even children, can rebel against orders. Instead, tell them interesting stories so that they will listen. Then as they grow up.isten to them. That is teaching by example. Listen to their problems and sympathise with them with love. Knowing that their parents do sympathise with them and can probably help them, they will be more willing to reveal more of what is happening to them when the parents are not around. Then, the parents would know if something is wrong and take remedial action to help the child. With such love and understanding, it is certain that the children will listen to the parents.

Later, when you listen to others, when opportunities come, tell your children why you listened to so and so, the amount of knowledge you got from him or her. Do not worry about your child having a lower opinion of you, for it will be the other way round. It would be how great their father or mother is in gathering information. How capable my dad or mum is!

I have overhead my children told their aunts and uncles how great papa is in getting so and so to explain how certain things are done. It wonderful to overhear such things. However, unless you practice this kind of listening, you cannot expect such compliments from your children.

So, let's start listening more to your children and indirectly teaching them to listen to you and those with great experiences. Such people are everywhere and it makes life still full of the unknown and so much more to live for.

You know, I am still listening around for the method of making brown rice venegar. I said listening because I have not been able to read about it in the libraries, books and the internet. So, anyone able to tell me that, I am all ears or eyes, whichever are needed.

So, let's listen around for more knowledge.

Leading children through examples.

Parents and leaders, what is the difference? Well, parents are leaders too.

Political leaders are the guardians of a nation. Their vision and the path they lead their people may take them to a better developed nation or a nation constantly beleaguered by endless problems.

That is the reason why we must choose our leaders carefully, otherwise we may be getting leaders in the habit of looking more after themselves and their communities than for the whole nation. They are similar to parents who are partial to some of their own children, neglecting a number of them for one reason or another.

Parents can lead their family to success and happiness or to a life of unending problems due to the poor attitudes, wrong behaviours and undesirable actions.

Sometimes, it is difficult to overcome poor attitudes, and undesirable behaviours and actions. Such parents had learnt or imitated them from their own parents. Schools do not seem to be able to do much nowadays, although educationists(?) did introduce religious teachings and moral education into schools. Preaching and teaching alone cannot do much to change pupils. There must be examples, in the form of stories, news items and living examples.

Parents are the first living examples for children. If they have weaknesses, then they must be aware of their own weaknesses. Only when someone is aware of weaknesses can that someone try to overcome them through the many ways available. (I myself have physical weaknesses that I was aware of at a very young age, and through that awareness, I searched for ways to overcome them, found those and acted on them to be the present healthy me.)

Parents can use the influence of good relatives, friends and neighbours. They could use everyday news of successful people. Do not just know of such stories. Tell the children about such people. Let them be inspired by such God-send individuals. For example, I tell almost everyone I met about the fantastic lady who lost her two hands and legs, yet is today better and more able than most people we all know. The wonderful lady, if you have read about her in this blog or in last month's Reader Digest, is none other than Daniela Garcia. What a lady!

When people my age were in school we had no moral lessons but we had literature when we had the beautiful opportunity to read about 'The mouse and the lion.', 'Jack and the beanstalk.' and 'The rabbit and the tortoise.'.

Those stories were fun to read, taking us to fantasy land and getting our young little hearts to admire the good deed of the mouse which deserved another good deed from the lion. And the beautiful part of it is the revelation of human character in real life through such fantasies.

In the 'Rabbit and the tortoise' story, we learn to not underestimate another person, not to scorn another just because he seemed to be handicapped. He might just have certain talents the able-bodied ones do not possess or does not have the need to discover. Anyway, through such stories I learned about life and fellow humans and my present position in life is an indication that I am not far from right as I have almost everything I want.

Educationists should perhaps take another look at the methods used today and consider the ideas of those perhaps not as well-educated educationists of the old days. Ego may be a stumbling block but I can tell you nuggets of knowledge, unlike you and me, do not age.

For the sake of our children, parents must continuously improve to be able to bring up the best.

Managing your calories through the right food.

In my previous postings, I did mention that excess carbohydrates, excess proteins and excess fats are the cause of obesity.

Yes, after all, it is only when we put in more calories than we expend that there are excess calories in our body for it to change them into body fats. It's as simple as that.

Therefore, the way to have the right body weight is to eat just enough for our body.

The other day I met a guy who told me that he had been an athlete in his schooldays. With his games and sports, he needed a lot of energy to stay active in the field and on the court.

Then, when he left school, he concentrated on his career and left behind the tracks, field and court. However, his appetite was just as good as before. He ate the same amount of food to satisfy his stomach. Slowly but gradually, his tummy began to expand. Soon, he had a spare tyre. Not just that, his muscles became soft and flabby. The unused muscles slowly turned to fat.

Looking back at one of my Kungfu masters and the sportsmen I had known, I discovered this to be the usual path for most of them. The trouble is that their activities are no longer as vigorous but the food still poured in at the same rate and quantity. There is excess calories, too much blood sugar leading to insulin problems and diabetes. More fat is stored in the body, around the organs and lining blood vessels causing them to narrow and gradually leading to heart problems.

So, the sensible thing to do is to slowly but gradually cut down on the amount of calories consumed so that what goes in is just sufficient for our needs.

Of course, for some, this may be difficult. Eating habit is difficult to overcome. So, we may have to solve this through preserving the same amount but slowly (It must be a gradual change for rebellion not to take place.)we can replace simple carbohydarates and sugars such as white processed sugar and processed flour and grains such as polished rice which contained no other nutrient than carbodhydrates; with complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, friuts, beans, legumes and vegetables which contain less calories and take a longer time for the body to process. In fact, we would be helping the body to get rid of some excess if it needs a longer process to get at the carbohydrates to get the calories.

With just a little lean meat and a minimal amount of possible fats in it; consuming more complex carbohydrates than simple carbohydrates, our body can return to a healthier weight.

If possible, do think of some enjoyable exercise as it can also expand whatever excess there is.

Then again, one very thin guy I knew could never seem to know what is excess. He wanted to put on weight but that was just not possible. He was a teacher who lived with me in the same house for a few years. He was with me at a language course. We stayed in the same hostel for about three months. During all that time, he tried to put on weight, eating a fantastic amount of food.

In fact I remembered very well that he ate so much that he attracted the attention of the others in the same dormitory. Every breakfast, there was always excess eggs and he would eat a good number of them. Then, in the evenings, about two hours after dinner he would buy half a Kenturkey Fried Chicken for his supper. Despite all that none of my friends have ever known him to be even plump. Where did all the excess calories go to? He was the walking, living testimony that eating excess food would not lead to obesity!

There are only two possible reasons for this guy. His metabolism rate was so high that it burned up all those calories. Well, besides exercise, our whole body need calories merely to stay alive. Every heartbeat, every breathe we take, every unfelt and unseen movement of the other organs in our body, every flow of blood, every pulse, every activity if our cells, every eye blink and whatever warmth our body emits require energy (calories). A calm person would require less while an agitated person who has his heart and mind racing faster than the fastest locomotive would certainly need much more. Each individual is uniquely individual.

Another reason could be the poor digestive system. If the food were to move down the digestive tract without or seldom delivering its calories, vitamins and essential fatty acids, then most of the food might end up at the bottom. lowest station with most of the food intact.

You do not believe that? Even the average Joe could see some seeds or fibres still recognisable splattered down in the toilet the next day. Just try it, take gauva friuts together with the seeds and it could happen to you, which is quite normal. Of course, some of them are the insoluble fibres that are bound to exit, assisting to give bulk and easier passage to the load.

Never mind, for the above guy, it could be a blessing or a problem. The fact is that there are exceptions.

I know that if we are willing to make a little change here and there, we can achieve a healthier weight.

Easy come, easy go.

Once upon a time, there was a young man who lived in shabby little hut in Kodiang, Kedah. Like quite a number of young man in this part of the country, which is very near to the neighbouring country, Thailand, he would travel to the some of the small towns in the southern part of Thailand.

People go to Thailand for mainly two reasons during that time. Many business people and families or women would go shopping in groups as everything they wanted was cheaper in Thailand. Another reason for going there were the girls who were easily available for a night of fun and, perhaps, presents of some veneral diseases.

Well, this young man went there because of the girls. One of the girls he became friendly with, gave him a lottery number. His star was shinning bright and the number brought him a huge sum of money. He was full of joy at his good fortune and so patronised this girl often. A little time later, another one of the numbers she gave struck gold again, this time bringing the young man more than a million ringgit as he had much money then with which he could bet with.

A million ringgit! Without further thought, he married the lady goose that gave the golden numbers. They lived happily for some time with the wise lady urging him to buy up land with some of the money.

Time dilutes the happiness of possessing a mere million ringgit. After all, there are others who have more. His only problem was that he was not prepared to use the money wisely. He knew of no business he could do with his money. Furthermore, his wife would be able to think of another number when his savings dwindled.

So, he continued to gamble. With the amount of money he had, he gambled big time. With money at hand and no work, he spent his days gambling at cards and mahjong,a kind of betting game.

Initially, he won but eventually, he lost more than he won. After more than half a year, his money was almost all gone. Yes, a lot had gone into buying land, but it was a matter of time before he had to sell each one of them to maintain his type of life-style.

Soon, he was back to where he started almost a year ago. Finding insufficient food on the table, his golden goose fled back to Thailand. Well, "Easy come, easy go." was the people's comments. And there was truth in it.

When a person does not have appreciation of something, he is careless with it. Through carelessness, that something can be lost. A person who gets his/her money through hard work or planning will understand how difficult such money is obtained. The person would value it and think of how he/she could use it to improve life.

We value something more if we finally achieve that thing through some effort. We treasure it more because it was not too easily obtained. It is just as I value my health a lot because I was very sickly when I was young. It took a lot of knowledge and exercise such as body-building to give me the health I have today. I thank god for my awareness of my weakness and determination to overcome it while I was still very young.

So, let's forget about easy money and gaining something with nothing. God only help those who help themselves.

Fats, food and health.

Recently, in this blog, you have read about the fats your body needs to stay healthy. Your cells which are found in every part and organ of your body need fats to to be produced and maintained. It supplies you with energy, without which your organs and body cannot function. Some vitamins need fats to be absorbed. So, naturally, fats are necessary.

However, do not go overboard, as we also know that too much of anything is not good for our health. Excess of some vitamins can cause problems. Excess fat can also be a problem. Knowing this how do we go about eating correctly.

Before I continue, I would like to point out that not only obese people get heart problems. I have personally known of at least two persons who had blocked arteries even though they are two very thin persons.

Knowing that saturated animal fats are not recommended by many health researchers, we ought to eat only lean meats. Of course, there is still a little saturated fats in the lean meat but that amount is not excessive. If it is chicken, remove the skin as most of the fats is found there.

When it comes to meat, it is not so much the fats in the lean meat but residues of the antibiotics and other chemicals or growth hormones which are given to the animals that can bring on health problems.

It is good to have some fish a few days a week as our protein intake. Oily fish supplies us with Omega-3.

Then again, some people do not see the fats in ghee, butter and magarine which are used in a good number of food. One of the friends who had blocked arteries told me his favourite breakfast food was 'roti canai', a kind of bread made with some ghee, which he took every morning. Here again, it is not so much the fats in the food but the build-up of the fats. Just as people who eat carrots everyday find their skin taking on a certain colour. Therefore variety is important.

I supplement with two tablespoons of coconut oil and a tablespoon of olive oil, a tablespoon each at either breakfast, lunch or dinner because of the benefits they bring. (Please read my posts on coconut oil.)

To be healthy, we should, as often as possible supply our body with sufficient protein, vitamins, minerals, fats, carbohydrates and water; besides giving it sufficient exercise and sleep.

How do we know we are giving our body the right amount of food? If our weight is fairly constant, then we know there is hardly excess food turning into fat in our body. Of course, we are talking about people with a good healthy build, neither too thin nor too fat.

Thus, if we desire a change, such as doing less exercise, we should reduce our food intake accordingly. Not doing so is one reason some sportmen or women grow fatter when they retire from active sports. The calories remain the same but the energy expended is lower; therefore forcing the body to turn the excessive food, which could be carbohydrates and protein, into fat.

As we can see body fat causing obesity does not come just from fat consumption. It also is caused by excessive carbohydrates and protein.

It is, therefore, excessive fats, carbohydrates and proteins which brings excessive calories which we must think of to remain healthy, not the amount of food. Some food contain so little calories that we can eat more of them and still have no health problem.

Do you agree? Well, let's share our knowledge for the good health of everyone.