For more than 3 years now I have been blessed to be able to win over the demon of sleep and clamber out of bed almost everyday to be able to take that walk around the Naga Cathedral grounds for health’s sake. Every time I am able to make 3 or more laps and get the perspiration dripping I congratulate myself for another early achievement in my daily sortie with Life. No doubt my co-walkers also share this exhilaration at being able to exercise our lungs and hearts out and get the air and blood circulation going!

That most of us are veterans of ‘Marble Row’ and/or ‘Alcoholics Unanimous’, although true, is now really beside the point. Rather, it should be to our credit that we have decided to scrounge for whatever extra days or years we might still be able to redeem through this determined daily exercise! A 30-minute brisk walk or 5,000 steps (whichever comes first) a day is the recommended average limit. Some push the limits up to an hour or more but, of course, age and their heart condition would be the chief determinants. A punishing hour-long jog for a 50-year-old man would be like trying to compete in the Indy 500 in a Volkswagen Beetle! Next to impossible indeed!

Some close friends have signified their intentions of also taking up this free-as-air exercise but they just can’t seem to make it, either because they still are so conscious about ‘what the people will say’ or they just are afraid their membership in Alcoholics Unanimous might lapse! Well, to tell the truth, just like anywhere in Peyton Place, we will always have guys and gals who find it hard to seal their lips, even while walking! In fact, there’s another place where information about anybody worth knowing is given out ‘gratis et amore’ while walking! No need for any covert and expensive intelligence gathering. Just a pair of feet and ears and you’ll be driving home with juicy morsels of the latest ‘sins’ of the chosen ‘victim’ of the day! Poor guy or gal! And to think that he or she was verbally ‘assassinated’ several times just within the perimeter of a House of God! Enough reason why I really find more peace in indulging in PRIVATE WALKING not TALKING!

That I was able to last this long is really such a big deal that I am so happy with myself for having been able to go at it ALONE! Years ago I would’ve found it almost impossible to go to the Cathedral grounds without the moral support of a friend or two. Then I would’ve thought it silly to walk all by myself around the Lord’s patio and Church, keeping pace or sometimes overtaking some slower guys who really love to talk than walk, and then feeling the perspiration crawling down like ants on my back and waving to some people I know from the past and some who know me too from their own past! Well, after a wave and a Hi! I just quicken my pace and say to myself: “small world!” and proceed to beat my previous days’ cell phone stopwatch record.

That our walking population has grown is a big proof indeed that more and more people are now getting so damn conscious of their health! We now have, aside from some lawyers, engineers, and contractors, a former congressman and bar topnotcher in our midst! We even have young teenaged boys and girls doing their own sun and air worshiping! So who says walking is only for the old and sickly? My wife takes up the challenge every time she comes home from Nairobi. A former and present Bank Manager have also made patio-walking their daily habit and they too, no doubt, are having so much fun just trying to break a sweat! So there you have it: an apple AND at least a 30 minute walk a day will definitely keep the doctor away! Besides, as I have always said, for the sake of good health, I’d walk a mile LIKE A CAMEL!