Burned Out - A Growing Dilemma of Very Busy People

   Burned Out -

A Growing Dilemma of Very Busy People

Burned out can lead to depression, today's biggest social dilemma. especially to very busy people.  Do you often feel dead tired, exhausted in your present work, and about to deflate like a balloon? Or are you about to erupt like a volcano?

Dr Abe V Rotor

The road is fine all right and you are running fast because you want to reach your destination – or your goal. Then all of a sudden a signboard appears. Dead End.

Shocking. You are in your prime. You have a happy family, good breeding, good company, and bright future. Good life – oh, the malls, Internet, travel, medals, rubbing elbows with personalities, greetings everywhere you go.

Are you about to erupt like a volcano? Painting in acrylic AVR 2016

What happened? Were you moving too fast in life because you want more? More money, honor, acquaintances, possessions, or just keeping up ahead? Or you are trying to escape? Escape from criticism, inadequacies? For not being able to cope up with the Joneses? Escape from tradition, because everything today must be modern? Escape from rural life because in the urban lies the golden city?

POM (Peace of Mind) Square

Of course you do not think of these while you are running. Then you start to walk, exhausted, and you look around. You are back to your senses. You realized you have not been a “square”. Your sense of dimension is lost and you did not care what shape you are in. Because you lost the integrated balance of the four pillars of a happy, fulfilled life.

• Intellectual/mental
• Spiritual
• Physical
• Psychological/Emotional

1. Physical – It's your health, body physiology, the machine and prime mover that keeps you going biologically. When was the last time you visited your doctor? Is your food balance? Maybe you are not getting enough exercise. Driving for hours does not constitute an exercise. Are you having difficulty to sleep, even only to rest? Imagine a machine breaking down because of strain.

2. Intellectual or mental – Your thoughts are assigned to two parts – the left for reasoning and the right for creativity. Either you have overtaxed the whole of your brain, or you failed to balance the two hemispheres. That's why it is important to attend to hobbies like painting and music (right brain) to balance the left which you use more often in office and home. As the body is subject to fatigue, so with the brain. A fatigued brain may lead to psychiatric condition that can not be relieved as easy as that of the body. Quite often extreme conditions are irreversible.

3. Psychological or emotional – Our psyche absorbs the impact of stress coming from the body and the mind – and from our spiritual being. Like a funnel the residues are accumulated here. Imagine a man staring at an artificial waterfall at a New York park. How many promising people are ruined by emotional problems? Jungian psychology explains that as we continue to repress our thoughts, our feelings, particularly those that are negative, the more we bury them deeper, storing them in our sub-conscious.

It means two things. First, we thought we have eliminated them. No, they come out in our dreams, they seep out into the unconscious in trickles that spoil many happy thoughts. Second, as we keep filling up the unconscious with more repressed thoughts, there comes a time that the tank so to speak, is likely to burst. There on a couch the potential victim, with the help of a psychiatrist, releases the pressure by withdrawing from the unconscious into the conscious chamber of the brain and flows out to his relief. Such rehabilitation requires rest and expurgation of the negative thoughts and experiences. It is only through this process that the psychiatric symptoms begin to cease.

4. Spiritual – The biblical Seventh Day is one for the spirit, a day of communication with our Creature, with Nature. It is a renewal of relationship between man and God, a re-invigoration of the soul. Emptiness can be easily felt, but quite often, it mingles with the kind of emptiness that is hard to fill. 

Stained glass painting on spirituality, AVR 2022

Our spiritual life suffers every time we act on something against our conscience. It becomes dull when we fail to do the things we should in accordance with our faith. I have heard of people complaining about the lack of “meaning in life.” For me, the answer lies not in our rationale thoughts, in our physical power or emotional or psychological makeup. In fact I believe that the lack of meaning is in the emptiness of the spirit. I recommend reading of A Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl, founder of logotherapy - a field of psychology which helped prisoners in German prison camps in World War II to survive.

As I continue to write this article at Room 3031 at the UST hospital (September 20, 2001) I glimpse upon a Newsweek story about 30,000 Japanese a year have been killing themselves. The title of the article is “Death by Conformity.” It is about an epidemic of young Japanese pulling back from the world."

Take the case of a 29-year old salaryman. He described how he secluded himself for three years after resigning from his company. “I didn’t even know if it was day or night,” he confessed.

Another case is about a “corporate warrior” who became a victim of economic slump affecting his company in the late 1998. He became “spiritually” weakened by an anxiety he couldn’t comprehend. This is how the report pictured the fiftyish company executive.

“At first he couldn’t sleep. Then he grew physically weak each time the train neared the station nearest his office. On several occasions he rode to the end of the line. At one point, speaking on condition that he not be identified, he went to buy a rope, then put it in the trunk of his car to be prepared for the day when he would hang himself. Fortunately the day didn’t come. A doctor helped him from overcoming his depression.”

Hikikomori Syndrome

This malady is called in Japan hikikomori or social withdrawal, a debilitating syndrome, which affects as many as 1.2 million young people – 7 out of 10 of them are male. Symptoms include

• Agoraphobia
• Paranoia
• Aversion to sunlight
• Severe anxiety
• Antisocial
• Fear they are being watched
• Think they are ugly, they smell, etc.
• Loner
• Uncommunicative
• Sullen, sometimes even violent

Hope for the Flowers*

Anyone who has read Paulus’ illustrated book, Hope for the Flowers, is certainly convinced that there is “nothing out there at the top.”

The story goes like this. Caterpillars scrambled up to the top, each outsmarting and climbing over one another, and forming a living pyramid. Each caterpillar wanted to be at the top. 
Imagine a whole mass of living, dynamic bodies, writhing, shaking, in the like of the Tower of Babel. At the top each one thought must be beautiful. To be at the top is honor. The higher one goes the more the risk to slide and fall off to its death.

“But there is nothing up there.” The caterpillar, which had reached the top, said. But the others did not believe. A female caterpillar gave up and turned into a pupa hanging peacefully on a branch of a tree. Then one morning she metamorphosed into a beautiful butterfly. Meantime her colleague continued on to struggle to the top of the pyramid.

She fluttered her wings in the morning sunshine and whispered something to someone she had met earlier. And the latter withdrew from the crowd, and followed the same thing she did. Then one morning he too, metamorphosed into a beautiful butterfly, while his colleagues were still struggling in the pyramid.

And the two butterflies lived happily ever after.

People are like caterpillars. They are gregarious. They form columns and pyramids. They step on one another just to be at the top. Many are frustrated, many get injured or even killed. Irony is that there is nothing at the top but space far from Heaven.~

Hope for the Flowers is an allegorical novel by Trina Paulus. It was first published in 1972 and reflects the idealism of the counterculture of the period. Wikipedia

Philippine deer (Rusa marianna)

Philippine deer (Rusa marianna)

Threatened Species

Dr Abe V Rotor

Philippine deer (Rusa marianna)

Description

The Philippine deer, also known as the Philippine sambar or Philippine brown deer, is a vulnerable deer species endemic to the Philippines. It was first described from introduced populations in the Mariana Islands, hence the specific name. Wikipedia

Scientific name: Rusa marianna
Conservation status: Vulnerable (Population decreasing) Encyclopedia of Life
Family: Cervidae
Phylum: Chordata
Order: Artiodactyla
Kingdom: Animalia

• The Philippine Deer (Rusa marianna) goes by several different names. It is often  referred to as the Philippine Sambar or the Philippine Brown Deer,  endemic to the Philippine Islands. It prefers the low grasslands but it is being driven higher into the mountains to seek cover and evade hunting. The Philippine Sambar lives on steep mountain slopes covered by forest and in clearings within the forest, at altitudes up to 3000 metres.

• The Philippine Sambar is similar in appearance and habits to the other species of Sambar, and is obviously closely related to them. Its body length is 100 to 150 cm, and it weighs 40 to 60 kg. The antlers of the males have 2 to 3 tines, and grow on average to between 30 and 40 cm.

• Philippine Sambar Deer feed mostly on mountain species of grasses and herbaceous plants. They have a maximum lifespan of about 15 years and like most species, wild deer don’t live as long. Humans rarely see Philippine Brown Deer because they are mostly nocturnal. They lead mostly solitary lives, although they may be seen in small groups occasionally. Their main predator is man. (Acknowledgement with thanks: Internet)

Private collection on display at the author's residence

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

A friendly family of Philippine deer mural at author's residence 

Where have all our heritage acacia trees gone?

 Where have all our heritage acacia trees gone?

Photographs taken by the author on a running car all the way from Vigan to Laoag,  a stretch of 90 kilometers.

Dr Abe V Rotor

 “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” – Albert Einstein

Empty landscape meets the traveler

Emptiness is simplicity, purity, peace and order.

No.  Nothing exists in nothing - or least,

emptiness denies happiness and meaning of life;

leading many to solitude and loneliness.

                                    - A. V. Rotor

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." ― William Shakespeare

"Love is like a tree, it grows of its own accord, it puts down deep roots into our whole being." ― Victor Hugo

A Cross on the Roadside

(A Cross in the Sky*)

I have lost you forever, 

Now a silhouette in the sky,

Spreading a gospel to remember, 

For the mindless passerby.

You live half of your life, 

Yet fullest at the Throne, 

Earning it well with strife,

Where every seed is sown. 

The birds now a flock,

The child a man;

You bid them all the luck,

And now they are gone.

In youth you sheltered me, 

A thought I can't be free,

I atone for your brevity,

With a thousand and one tree.

"I feel a great regard for trees; they represent age and beauty and the miracles of life and growth." ― Louise Dickinson Rich

 

The Highway Conquers All

The highway conquers all:

Trees on its shoulder, lawn between lanes;

in rich diversity now thinned out;

wildlife pedestrians crossing;

breeze swept into cyclone and dust;

bright, pure colors into kaleidoscope,

landscapes into haze and maze;

whisper and lull into sudden boom;

leaves fall in any season;

Give way to the king of the road;

now you see him, now you don't -

the Janus' god of the Good Life. 

- A,V,Rotor

"All our wisdom is stored in the trees." ― Santosh Kalwar

"On the last day of the world I would want to plant a tree." ― W.S. Merwin 

 

"I think I shall finally see,

A kind-hearted man plant a tree,

For he who truly loves thee

Shall love others through a tree."

- A V Rotor, Light in the Woods

  “Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.” – Gerard De Nerval

 

"Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven't done a thing. You are just talking." ― Wangari Maathai

 

"When trees burn, they leave the smell of heartbreak in the air." ― Jodi Thomas

 

"Trees are as close to immortality as the rest of us ever come." ― Karen Joy Fowler

 

"Trees do not preach learning and precepts. They preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life." ― Herman Hesse

"Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky." ― Kahlil Gebran

 

 “Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”   John Muir

“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.” – E. O. Wilson

* Reprint from Light in the Woods by Dr A.V. Rotor 1995

Putakti! Paper Wasps on the Run!

 Putakti!

Paper Wasps on the Run!

Dr. Abe V. Rotor

Or was it the other way around?

This happened to me - rather what I did - when I was five or six. I don’t know why I attacked a colony of putakti or alimpipinig (Ilk). It is bravado when you put on courage on something without weighing the consequences, much less in knowing the reason behind.
Paper wasp nests, Museum of Natural History, UPLB Laguna

I was sweeping the yard near a chico tree when I suddenly felt pain above my eye. No one had ever warned me of paper wasps, and I hadn’t been stung before. There hanging on a branch just above my head was a neat clump of paper-like nest the size of a fist. On the guard were a dozen or two of this kind of bees, which is a local version of the hornet bees in other countries. Bees belong Order Hymenoptera, the most advanced order of insects owing to their highly developed social behavior.

I retreated, instinctively got hold of a bikal bamboo and attacked the papery nest, but every time I got close to it I got stung. I don’t know how many times I attacked the enemy, each time with more fury, and more stings I received, until dad saw me. I struggled under his strong arms sobbing with anger and pain.

I was lucky. Kids my size wouldn't be able to take many stings. Fortunately I was not allergic to bee poison. There are cases when the poison paralyzes the heart.

I learned a valuable lesson: Don't allow anger to overcome reason, and don't do anything, how courageous you may think, if it is motivated by revenge. They call this bravado - not courage.

x x x

Cranefly or Daddy-long-legs

 Cranefly or Daddy-long-legs

If you can detect a cranefly, you must have a third eye.

Dr Abe V Rotor 

This is a rare specimen I caught at home. It is a very curious one, although it is quite familiar; it is a relative of the mosquito. It is also rare because its size is much bigger than the ordinary cranefly we often called daddy-long-legs.* 

Crane Fly (Tipula sp), 

Family Tipulidae, Order Diptera

The cranefly undergoes four stages - egg, larva called maggot, pupa and adult. The maggot feeds on crops and pasture grass but it inflicts little damage. The adults emerge and swarm in the evening. They have queer body structure and movement. 

Craneflies are clumsy fliers, mainly because they have only one pair of wings for flying. That is why they are classified Diptera - two wings. The pair of hindwings are reduced into halteres or balancers which look like stubs or knobs.

When at rest, craneflies shake continuously in all directions that they become virtually invisible to their enemies. This unique mechanism has not been fully studied.

Among the Arachnids, members of the Pholcidae family are also called daddy-long-legs spiders. Their presence is known to be worldwide. Here are two species of harvestman spiders. The one at the right appears hazy and blurred as seen when it is in continuous shaking motion. (Acknowledgement with thanks: Internet, Wikipedia)  

  

"From the Woods to the Sea" on a Wall Mural

                  "From the Woods to the Sea" on a Wall Mural

Dr Abe V Rotor

Travel in a mural on the wall,

meet the deities in the woods,

 the mermaids in the sea,

and all creatures big and small.

Wall mural by the author.  Living with Nature, author's residence,

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

"When nature shall then be gone,

like Paradise lost after the fall -

 a make-believe mural on a wall rises,

beautiful in the setting sun." - avr

“The poetry of the earth is never gone.” – John Keats ~

Benefits of Backyard Native Chicken Raising

 Benefits of Backyard Native Chicken Raising 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Improvised chicken coop.  Living with Nature, author's residence 

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Features:

1. Practical and low technology
2. Locally formulated feeds, mainly palay or corn
3. Natural immunity and resistance to diseases 
4. Litter of rice husk (ipa) or sawdust as natural fertilizer or compost  
5. Native chicken beat foreign breed in taste, especially local recipes
6. As pets children love their unique colors and features
7. Raised on the range, or in make-shift coop (or combined)
8. Virtually self-supporting at harvestime, reduces crop wastage
9. Game fowls from selected roosters or by crossbreeding 
10. Family self-sufficiency in poultry meat and eggs 
11. Pastime and hanapbuhay (livelihood) 
12. Physical activity, family project, and therapy,  

 

Backyard chicken and native ducks for meat and eggs. 

Thoughts on the Nature of Human Relationship

  Thoughts on the Nature

of Human Relationship

"If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Dr Abe V Rotor

1. As we undervalue ourselves, so do others

undervalue us. Lo, to us all little brothers.

2. That others may learn and soon trust you,

show them you're trustworthy, kind and true.

3. How seldom, if at all, do we weigh our neighbors

the way we weigh ourselves with same favors.

4. Even a strong man, a little danger may create

the impression he's small or the problem is great

5. The greatest crisis ambitious men and women face

is loss of privacy trying to win a nameless game.

6. If a little in me dies if only someone must live,

Here then Lord, here is my whole life to give. ~

Acknowledgement: Internet image

The Mysterious World of the Pagoda Bagworm (Cryptothelea heckmeyeri)

The Mysterious World of the Pagoda Bagworm (Cryptothelea heckmeyeri )

Dr Abe V Rotor

 

Pagoda bagworm, Crypothelea hekmeyeri Heyl., in pseudo colony on 

duhat leaf; right, enlarged side view of the pagoda-shaped insect. 

Sheepishly she peeps from under a pagoda she built;

Like the turtle she hides, creeps ‘til finally ceases to eat.

A Venus de Milo she emerges, sans wings she must wait,

Love scent in the air she urges a winged groom her mate.

She lays her eggs in the tent, broods them ‘til they hatch,

With heart’s content; leaves and dies after the dispatch.

To the Great Maker, life’s full of sacrifice and obligation;

Mother keeps young and home, the species’ bastion.

- AV Rotor, Bagworm

Light in the Woods, 1995

My pastime reading under a spreading duhat tree standing at the backyard of our old house was disturbed one summer. This favorite shady spot almost disappeared as the tree my father planted before I was born completely shed its leaves. Our yard turned into a litter of leaves. Our tree appeared lifeless.

Summer is when this tree is a deep green canopy, loaded with flowers and luscious, sweet fruits, and laughing children, their tongues and hands bearing the stain of its black berries.

The culprit cannot be the drought spurred by El Nino, I thought. Duhat is highly tolerant to prolonged dry spell, because its tap roots can reach deep seated ground water.

Even before I discovered the culprit - a shy insect protected by a pagoda-like bag - my children had already set up a field laboratory in their a tent, complete with basic research tools, and books of Karganilla, Doyle and Attenborough. For days our backyard became a workshop with the touch of Scotland Yard, Mt Makiling and Jules Verne.

My children called the insect living pagoda because of the semblance of its house with the Chinese temple, and because of its turtle-like habit of retreating into its bag. Leo, our youngest fondly called it Ipi, contracted from “insect na parang pagong at pagodang intsik”.

Ipi belongs to the least known family of insects, Psychidae, which in French means mysterious. Yet its relatives, the moth and the butterfly, are perhaps the most popular and expressive members of the insect world.

Curious about the unique bag and how it was built by such a lowly insect, Matt and Chris Ann worked as research partners. They entered their data in a field notebook as follows:

1. Base diameter - 2 cm

2. Height of bag - 2 cm

3. No. of shingles on the bag - 20

4. Size ratio of shingles from base to tip – 10:1

5. Basic design – Overlap-spiral

We examined the specimen in detail with a hand lens and found that the bag has several outstanding features. My children continued their data entry, as follows:

1. Water-resistant (shingle roof principle)

2. Stress-resistant (pyramid principle)

3. Good ventilation (radiator principle)

4. Light yet strong (fibrous structure)

5. Camouflage efficient (mimicry and color blending)

6. Structural foundation - None

The pagoda bag has no structural foundation, I explained. It is carried from place to place by a sturdy insect which is a caterpillar, larva of a moth. Beneath its pagoda tent, it gnaws the leaf on the fleshy portion, prying off the epidermal layer to become circular shingles. Using its saliva, it cements the new shingles to enlarge its bag, then moves to a fresh leaf and repeats the whole operation. As the larva grows, the shingle it cuts gets bigger,

 

Talisay (Terminalia catappa) favorite host of bagworms.

This is a very rare case where construction starts at the tip and culminates at the base, noted my wife. Remember that the structure is supposed to be upside down because Ipi feeds from the underside of the leaf, I said. “An upside pagoda,” our children chorused.

As Ipi grows, the shingles progressively increase in size and number, thus the bag assumes the shape of a storied pagoda. Thus there are small pagodas and larger ones, and varied intermediate sizes, depending on the age of the caterpillar which continuously feeds for almost the whole summer during which it molts five times.

If there are no longer new shingles added to the bag it is presumed that the insect had stopped growing. It then prepares to pupate and permanently attaches its bag on a branch or twig, and there inside it goes into slumber. The attached bag appears like thorn as if it were a part of the tree, and indeed a clever camouflage on the part of the insect. Here suddenly is a parasite becoming a symbiont, arming the host tree with false thorns!

My children's curiosity seemed endless. I explained that like all living things, bagworms have self-preserving mechanisms. They must move away from the food leaf before it falls off. They must secure themselves properly as they tide up with their pupal stage. After a week later they metamorphose into adults. Here on the twigs and branches they escape potential predators. Here too, the next generation of newly hatched larvae will wait for new shoots on which they feed.

Matt picked one bag after another to find out what stage the insect is undergoing. I recalled my research on Cryptothelea fuscescens Heyl, a relative of C. heckmeyeri, the pagoda species. Chris Ann took down notes

1. Specimen 1 - Bag is less than 1 cm in diameter, caterpillar in third instar (molting), voracious feeder.

2. Specimen 2 - Bag large, construction complete, insect in fifth or sixth instar, morphological parts highly distinct, head and thorax thick, three pairs of powerful legs.

3. Specimen 3 - Insect in pupal stage, expected to emerge in one week, chrysalis (skin) full, dark and shiny. Feeding had completely stopped.

4. Specimen 4 - Bag empty, opening clear, chrysalis empty.

5. Specimen 5 - Bag contains eggs laid on cottony mass, chrysalis empty.

The last specimen is intriguing. Where is the insect? Why did it abandon its lifelong home? A puzzle was painted on the face of our young Leo. So I explained.

Let us trace the life history of Ipi and its kind. Both male and female bagworms mature into moths. The winged male upon emerging from his bag is soon attracted by love scent emitted by a waiting female moth still ensconced in her bag. The scent is an attractant scientists call pheromone.

Then in the stillness of summer night, her Romeo comes knocking. Without leaving her bag she receives him at an opening at the tip of the pagoda bag. A long honeymoon follows, but signaling an ephemeral life of the couple.

The fertilized female lay her eggs inside the bag, seals it with her silty saliva, then wiggles free to the outside world but only to fall to the ground - and die, because Nature did not provide her wings!

“Poor little thing,” muttered Cecille apparently in defense of the female species. “Nature did it for a reason,” I countered, “otherwise we would not have bagworms today.” The wingless condition of the female bagworm is the key to the survival of the species.

The sun had set, the litter of leaves had been cleaned up. And the silhouette of our leafless duhat tree against the reddening sky painted gloom on our subject. As dusk set in, I noticed nocturnal insects circling the veranda lamp. A moth paused, then passed over our heads and disappeared into a tree. “Bye, bye,", cried Leo Carlo.

Summer was short, the rains came early and our duhat tree developed robust foliage. Cicadas chirped at the upper branches and an early May beetle hang peacefully gnawing on young a leaf. I was reading Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring when a gust of wind brought down a dozen tiny bagworms hanging on their own invisible spinnerets. My children were aroused from their reading of The Living Planet.

We had unveiled the mystery of the pagoda bagworm, but above anything else, we found love and appreciation on the wonders of Nature and the unity of life itself. ~~

 

Another species of bagworm (Crypthothela fuscescens Heylerts),  Family Psychidae. Photos taken at Angels' Hills, Tagaytay. The larva builds a bag of dried twig of the same diameter and length and attaches on the host plant until it reaches maturity.  The spent bag simply remains hanging. Other photo shows an exposed larva purposely for study.~

Guava - the tree of happy childhood.

Guava -  the tree of happy childhood.

Dr Abe V Rotor

 Living with Nature - School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com] 

Recess Time: Guava tree and swing take a break. Batasan Hills, QC

If there is a ninth or tenth wonder of the natural world, it is the guava tree. For me it is the first.

Have you seen a tree bearing “fruits” bigger – and heavier - than its whole structure?

And here is for the Book of Guinness. Have you heard the guava tree talk, laugh and shout, sing beautifully or grunt, make echolocation signals? Parents remind their children not to miss their siesta or classes. Then doldrums reigns but briefly. But soon the children are back to their favorite tree.

Take the backseat London Bridge, Golden Gate or Eiffel Tower. The guava tree can bend and touch the ground, and become upright again – not once, not twice but many times in its lifetime. And every branch equally obliges to the 180-degree weight and pull of children. No wonder the best spinning top and the best frame for slingshot are made from guava wood, and is perfect "Y", too.

It is a living Christmas tree, sort of. Birds come frequently. The perperoka and panal - migratory birds from the North, come with the Amihan and eat on the berries, while combing the place of worms, and gleaning on anything left by harvesters. The pandangera bird (fan-tailed) dances on the branches, while the house sparrow perches, picking ripe fruits and some crawlers. And if you wake up very early, meet the butterflies and bees gathering nectar and pollen from the flowers. Take a deep breathe of the morning air spiced with the fragrance of both flowers and ripe fruits.

And the tree has eyes. True. Round and luminescent in the dark, mingle with the fireflies and the stars – and a waning moon. It is romantic, scary and sacred. Fruit bats come at night and pick the ripe fruits. Rodents and wild pigs scavenged at night. Moths and skippers, relatives of the butterfly, are nocturnal in their search for food and mate. Old folks would warn us kids never to go near the tree at night. In my career as biologist I had the experience to see in the middle of a field guava trees lighted with fireflies. This scene was in Sablayan in Mindoro island. What a sight - Christmas in another time and in another place. What a magnificent sight!

Would a child go hungry where guava trees abound? I don’t think so. Because the fruits are packed with sugar, vitamins and minerals. The fruits are made into jelly, pickled and cooked as vegetable. It is perfect for sinigang. Have you heard of guava wine? It is the most aromatic of all table wines made from tropical fruits, and it displays a rare pinkish glow. Nutritionists say guava is rich in Vitamin C, richer than most fruits, local and imported. I came to learn later of the cancer-preventing substance derived from Psidium guajava, its scientific name, and its miraculous healing attributes.

Name the ailments commonly encountered, and the guava offers a dozen home remedies. Chew the tops and make a poultice to relieve toothache. The village dentist tells you to first make a poultice the size of a marble, then after he has extracted your tooth, he tells you to seal the wound with it to prevent bleeding and infection. Pronto you can go back to your usual chore.

Guava stem is the first toothbrush, try it. Soften the smaller end and you can also use it as toothpick. This is practical when traveling in a remote area. Chew a leaf or two for astringent and tooth paste. Crushed leaves serve as aromatherapy, a new term today. And for an unconscious person, burn some dried leaves, fan the smoke toward the patient while pressing his large toe with your thumb nail. The patient senses both pain and smoke and soon takes a deep breathe - another, and another, until he gets enough oxygen and he wakes up.

Decoction of guava leaves for bath is practical in eliminating body odor. Guava soap is effective against skin disorders like pimples and eczema.

My daughter Anna Christina developed as a college thesis work Guava Ointment, an all-natural antibacterial solution of the plant’s anti-inflammatory and therapeutically active properties against wounds or burns. Extract from the leaves contains 5 to 10 percent tannin, and fixed oils that has antibacterial and inhibitory effect against microorganisms causing infection.

Here are the main ingredients of Anna’s Guava Ointment.

• Tannin, a non-crystallizable complex polyhydroxylphenolic compound is present in the leaves and stems.
• Fixed Oil which is frequently found in the roots, stems, branches, flowers and fruits. It exists as oil globules in special cells.
• Volatile Oil is an odorous compound found in various plant parts. It usually evaporates when exposed to the air at ordinary temperature. It is obtained by stem distillation, solvent extraction or absorption into purified fats.
• Petrolatum is the ointment base used, sometimes called “Petroleum Jelly”. It is a purified mixture of semi-solid hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum. You can make your own Petrolatum with castor oil, coconut oil, beeswax, sorbitan tristearate, silica, tocopherol (vitamin E), and natural flavor. You may consult your local pharmacist about these ingredients. Petrolatum is thoroughly mixed with the extract and kept for use in a typical ointment container.

When I was a kid my auntie-yaya would gather succulent green guava fruits as remedy for LBM. Tannin regulates the digestive enzymes and stabilizes the digestive flora. She would also make guava leaf tea as a follow-up treatment.

As an offshoot of all these experiences, I asked my students to look into the potential value of guava seeds. The seeds contain 14 percent oil, 15 percent proteins, and 13 percent starch. And study also the bark and leaves in the development of drugs against diarrhea, and as astringent.

At one time I was isolating yeasts that occur in nature which I needed in preparing bubod – yeasts complex for basi wine fermentation, I stumbled upon two kinds of yeasts - Saccharomyces elipsoides and Brettanomyces - the second, I discovered is the secret of French wine quality. This French yeast resides in our home yard, in the flower of the native guava! Later I found out, the same yeast naturally occurs in the flowers of macopa (Eugenia jambalana) and duhat (Syzygium cumini), both members of the guava family - Myrtaceae. For this I have been very grateful to the Food Development Center (FDC) under the National Food Authority for helping me in the isolation and identification of these specimens.

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Guava is the tree of happy childhood. The tree bears fruits and children. Look at all the children climbing, swinging on its branches, some armed with bamboo poles, others with small stones, still others with slingshots aiming at one thing: the ripe fruits on the tree. The tree builds sweet childhood memories.
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The guava seed is an example of Nature’s way of breaking dormancy of seeds and enhancing their dissemination. Dormancy is a temporary delay for seeds to germinate, which may last for a few days to several years. This is important as a survival mechanism of plants. Guava seeds are not destroyed by gastric juice and peristalsis of the digestive system of animals – cold or warm blooded - because of their very thick and hard pericarp. This biological process prepares the seeds to grow and colonize a new land.

You can’t crack guava seeds. If you do, especially with a decayed tooth you’ll end up going to your dentist. Oh, how I would wince and hold on anything. Either the old tooth is forced out of its place or the seed has lodged in the cavity.

Old folks also believe that guava seeds can cause appendicitis. Well, its seed is too large to enter this rudimentary organ. I believe though that it is its abrasive nature that makes way for the bacteria to enter and cause infection. And subsequently inflammation. Well, if this is true, then it’s a risk one takes in eating guava. You really can’t remove all the seeds, and if you succeed you take away the fun and quaintness of eating this fruit of happy childhood.

We have introduced foreign varieties of guava which really don’t grow into a tree. The fruits are very much bigger, but far from being as sweet as those of our native variety. In a few years the guapple, as it is called, becomes senile and die, while the native guava lasts for a lifetime, a generation, perhaps longer.

Today when I see children climbing guava trees it reminds me of my childhood. It reminds me of its many friends – birds, ground fowls like ducks, chicken, bato-bato, goats and self-supporting native pigs. I imagine butterflies, dragonflies and Drosophila flies attracted by the ripening fruit. And frogs and toads patiently waiting for these flies to become their prey. Finches and sparrows, the quick and dainty La Golondrina (swift), the pandangera, panal and perperroka – I miss them.

Yes, the fruit bats, they are the source of children’s stories, among them is about clumsy bats dropping their load of ripe fruits accidentally falling of rooftops. In the dead of the night what would you imagine? “It’s the manananggal! (female half-bodied vampire).” Our folks at home would even make their voice tremble. And we would cling to each other in bed we kids of our time. Our elders take advantage of the situation and whisper, “If you don’t sleep, it will come back.”

In the morning who would care about the mannanaggal? Or seeds causing appendicitis? Or the danger of falling from the tree. Or chased by a wild boar? Or challenged by a Billy goat or a brooding hen? As usual we would search for ripe berries and have our fill. Then we would hurry down and run to relieve ourselves, too loaded we simply take comfort in some thickets. In time guava trees would be found growing this these places.

Years after, I saw children climbing these guava trees and having their fill of the fruits, joyous in this adventure of childhood, making the guava tree the greatest wonder of the world. x x x

 Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM, [www.pbs.gov.ph] 8-9 evening class Monday to Friday