As someone enjoying outdoor life, I really like where I live that with less than 10 minutes walk, I am right at the entrance to a reservoir and walking trails. I make it a practice, amongst all the walks I take there from time to time, that every year near my birthday, I savour a walk along those trails. I did it last year with my dog, Goffy.  This year, just an hour ago I walked by myself. I felt so free, so young and so lively. I pray that at god’s will, I would physically be fit to do that every year until I am 80.

It is not just the walk that cheers me, it is the privacy and tranquility when walking by yourself in the hills. Your mind just becomes so active and so enjoyable that you just let go……..

I thought of my children especially my daughter, Joyce, a very characterized girl. How much I yearn for her presence that we walk the hills together chatting and laughing. Even when she was just 4 or 5, I could not remember exactly, she had the guts to stand against her father’s order to eat the vegies or to stay outside the house as a punishment. We were amazed that she took the cane and stood outside the main door for a long while. Now that she is grown up, how much do I enjoy arguing with her about things that are important or petty. In particularly, seeing how she handles her work as a smart leader. She has a lot of ability and possesses an air of command that people would listen to what she says.

In the past two years, I have not been seeing her for a long time and like all fathers I would always love to have my children around. God knows how much I miss her!  Though as a man and a father, I seldom express such a yearning openly to her yet it does not mean she should not be aware of my feeling toward her. I love you, my daughter.

As I was thinking about this, I reflected upon a TV episode when a girl asked her father why did he not come visit her for the past twelve years. I just wept and said to myself that I must go see my daughter this year. On the other hand, I was also proud of how independent my daughter is. When three of us, I, her mother and brother returned to Hong Kong, she chose to live in Canada by herself as she likes living there. Well, she has a family there now and with Mitchell and two dogs, I believe she has found a very meaningful life in that beautiful city of Vancouver. This is how it is seen on the surface, but deep down, I still want her to be with me.

I also thought of my son who I do not miss that much as he is here with me, living in the same city and even in the same estate. I love him very much too and I am proud to say he has his ways and I feel safe when he is around and that if I chose to I could depend on him the rest of my life. It is a very comfortable feeling for a father, isn’t it? He is a cheerful guy who does not worry even if the sky falls down but he owes me a grand child.

As I was walking up and down the trail, listening to my IPhone songs, the sun was warm and I saw people fishing at positions along the bank of the water. With blue sky above and light breeze whisked my mind and face, I could not help thanking the almighty for such a beautiful day. Suddenly, I thought about myself for a very particular moment. It was one of the mornings I was walking to the office in downtown Central. The time when I was around 32ish in 1978 or 1979, a young man with a wife and two kids, just changed to a new job trying to climb the ladder of career. To be realistic and put things to more context, at that time, as a 32-year old young man, I was open and subject to the influx of the things of life. I did not know what I exactly want of life. I still remember vaguely that at that age I could only think of buying a new Nikon camera and a piano for Joyce.

Right in front of the entrance to the office building, there at the curb side a Mercedes Benz pulled up and  a young and pretty Asian woman, slightly pregnant, well dressed,  got out, said something in English, kissed her man goodbye then breezed into the building. She did not notice I was watching so closely. There I was, standing, envious of the sweet moment I witnessed. Like in a movie, a young couple – the man smart and the woman pretty, the love story stunned me in such a way that I was fantasizing how nice it would be if my life would be that romantic too. Just within moments, the hustles of the traffic and the crowd of people in passing woke me up swiftly.  I quickly commanded that fantasy to disappear and went into the building to start my day of work in Swire House, the headquarters of Cathay Pacific. I found out a few days later that she was a colleague in a different department. Her office was not too far away from mine.

That was a very pretty memory that traced back so many years of life. However, I did not allow myself to dwell in it further, as deep down, as if destiny is mocking, something so casual and haphazard could cause a lot of twists and turns to my life. On such a perfect day like today with a cheerful and pleasant atmosphere, immediately, I paid more attention to the lyrics of the songs as well as to the scenery and the walk in order to switch my mind the other way. I finished a 90-minute walk well exercised and headed home. Very happy and motivated. I am full of bless that I have the freedom to do such a walk anytime I like to. Although I am fully retired, I am still active in some not so occupying part time work. I have a board meeting to attend to tomorrow morning to debate on whether the airline should sell two more aircraft in the wake of expecting a license to be issued to us in a matter of a few months to start our airline flying. What kind of business is it if we do not have any aircraft??

.