At a Loss?

Do you know that when you are trying to write an article or even a short essay, the hardest thing is the beginning?


How to write? How to begin? This is the situation that a person faces even though he already knows what he wants to write about.

One way is just to write down anything that comes into your mind. It can be a word, a string of words, a sentence. It doesn’t matter. Do it for 5 minutes. After that, look at what you have jotted down. You may see certain words lend themselves to a group or a cluster.

Then you can begin to write your sentences, expanding on these words. These may be your first paragraph. Once you have begun, the rest will flow steadily.

After you have finished your piece, you can read it through and edit. You may want to rearrange your paragraphs, change a few words here and there. Voila! You have your article or essay.

Similarly if you are at a loss wondering what you are going to do the next day,
just jot down a couple of things that are outstanding which have to be attended to. Or if nothing is urgent, decide to take a morning walk or just look at the plants in your garden.
Believe you me, you will soon find yourself busy doing what you never thought of in the first place.
That’s how you can get things done.

But for the Grace of God...

But for the Grace of God, I may not be swinging by now.

This morning, I had my usual "monologue" with God as I left my home. I prayed for the Lord to cover and protect all members in my family and my siblings' families, to take me safely to where I was going this morning and to bring me back home safely.

I went to the British Council for some discussions after which I made my way to the multi-storey carpark. I had to cross a one-way but two lane street. The cars had to slow down at the raised ramp near the junction so I crossed the road further down, away from the junction. As I was halfway across, I saw this car rushing towards me and I thought, " Oh God, it's going to hit me! I'm either going to die or be badly hurt."

I couldn't backtrack as there was another car coming. I just stopped, frozen as I waited for it to hit me. All of a sudden the car stopped right in front of me. I quickly walked past the car and I looked at the driver.

It was a woman driver who didn't even turn to look at me. I asked "How can you drive so fast?" but of course she couldn't hear me because her window was up and as I said she didn't even look at me. She just zoomed off.

I quickly uttered a short prayer of thanks to God. Indeed He had been covering and protecting me all the while, every night and every day. This morning's incident had made it very clear. Only God could have stopped the car. It had been coming very fast. Obviously the ramp didn't slow her down. She must have swept across it in a hurry to get somewhere.

It was only after I got to my car, that I truly felt the impact of the last few minutes. If I had been knocked down, would I have lived to tell the tale? If I had survived, how badly incapacitated would I have been?

Ironically my second place of call was to the gym at the Golf & Country Club where I was going to exercise on the stationary bike. Doctor's orders after I fell and hurt my knee. I go there three times a week to cycle. Today I did my exercise and then headed to the supermarket to buy some vegetables and fruit.

This mundane chore helped me to calm down a bit but I suspect that when I next have to cross that street in town, I will be more than doubly careful.

Praise the Lord for a safe drive home this morning.

Old but Still Trim

As we age our bodies change and we find fat in places where we didn’t have any when we were younger.

Our metabolism slows down and the digestive system doesn't work as well as it used to.

Hormonal changes in the body can also affect the shape of our bodies but one thing that which doesn’t change is this. If we eat too much food and drink too much alcohol we will gain weight.

Some people say that being over weight or fat is part of growing old but this is not true. There are many elderly people who are still slim, fit and healthy.


It is actually our lifestyles that have resulted in the bodies we now have. Poor food choices throughout our life have made us fat and we have compromised our health because of poor nutrition.


However all is not lost. We can improve our nutrition and begin an exercise program to reduce our body fat. Cycling is one exercise anyone can do.


No matter how old we are we can benefit from improved nutrition and exercise.
This will enable us to enjoy a better quality of life.