It's autumn again here in Markham, and despite the dipping temperatures and more rainy days, there are days in between when the weather turns beautiful and sunny or the the rain stops, so one can get out, enjoy the scenery, get some fresh air. Fall has become one of my favorite seasons over the years. When I was new here, I used to hate fall weather for its gloominess, gray skies, , rain, falling leaves bare trees. As I lived 34 years of my life in a tropical country (the Pearl of the Orient Seas - the Philippines) where the temperature is warm and mostly sunny all year round, the experience of colder temperatures was quite a shock..
Now, I see fall differently. I love seeing the trees, shrubs and vegetation changing to beautiful fall colours - yellow, brown, orangy sometimes, pinkish leaves that through the days fall to the ground one by one until the branches of the trees where they were before are bare, and to me look like little hands reaching for the sky, praying to , praising and giving thanksgiving to the great creator in heaven. I love to feel the cold autumn breeze gently touching my cheeks, and savour the smell of falling leaves and damp vegetation.
In the last year my running mileage has been dramatically down from the previous years because of this chronic pain in the left side of my knee. The thing is, when I stop running for a long time the pain gets worse. I discovered that when I run slower and shorter distances, the pain seems to disappear most of the time. So, latelly in the last 2 months, I have been visiting this basketball court in a park close by and after my short slow runs, I reminish the good old days by shooting some hoops and a few times actually played 3 on 3 pick up ball with some youngsters. Of course I did not feel old when I was playing, felt it always though the morning after when I painfully struggled just to get out of my bed.
