Book on LIVING WITH FOLK WISDOM: Chicken Soup is Best for Convalescent; If Dust Gets into Your Eyes, Blow Your Nose.

LIVING WITH FOLK WISDOM 

Chicken Soup is Best for Convalescent; If Dust Gets into Your Eyes, Blow Your Nose.

“Living with Nature in Our Times cautions us while walking on the busy lane of change. It reminds us to retrain our senses and to hone our sensitivity to better appreciate the best life can offer. Only when we are close to nature are we able to truly appreciate its acquisitiveness; only when we heed the old folks’ good advice can we truly appreciate the beauty and bounty of nature.”

Abercio V. Rotor, Ph.D.
Author, Living with Nature in Our Times Book Series
Response Book Launching
August 30, 2007

      Some time ago a good old friend asked me, Abe  how can you go back to nature? Are you going back to the farm.  Don’t you like to live anymore in the city? Are you selling your car.

 

Author was presented the first copy of his book from UST Secretary General and Vice Rector. 

 

     Yes, I answered.  No not my car, that’s my only car. Yes, I can live with nature. Oo nga naman.  We talked and talked, until we were back in our childhood – I mean, childhood. This was when my father got sick.  And this is how I came to learn that chicken soup is good for one who is convalescing, yon’ galing sa sakit - nagpapagaling. 

 

     True. Totoo. Chicken soup is good for the convalescent. However, there are specifications of the kind of chicken to be served. First, it must be native chicken. Karurayan is the term in Ilocos for a pure white native chicken which does not bear any trace of color on its feathers. It is preferably a female, dumalaga or fryer, meaning it has not yet reached reproductive stage. It is neither fat nor thin. Usually the herbolario chooses one from recommended specimens. He then instructs and supervises the household in the way the karurayan is dressed, cut, cooked into tinola (stew) and served to the convalescent. He does not ask for any fee for his services, but then he takes home one or two of the specimens that did not pass the specifications. (The more affluent the patient is, the more chicken the herbolario takes.) 

     Chicken soup as a convalescent food is recognized in many parts of the world. Because of its popularity, chicken soup has become associated with healing, not only of the body – but the soul as well. In fact there is a series of books under the common title Chicken Soup -  for the Woman’s Soul, Surviving Soul, Mother’s Soul, Unsinkable Soul, Writer’s Soul, etc. Of course, this is exaggeration, but nonetheless it strengthens our faith that this lowly descendant of the dinosaurs that once walked the earth of its panacean magic. 

     Try chicken soup to perk you up in these trying times - with all the rush, tension, various ailments, and expensive medication. Ika nga, bawal ang magkasakit.   

   

    But first, be sure your chicken does not carry antibiotic residues, and should not be one that is genetically engineered (GMO). By the way, I was a participant in the rituals made by this good herbolario.  I was then a farmhand and I was tasked to get the karurayan.  Our flock failed the test, but I found two dumalaga with few colored feathers. I plucked out the colored feathers and presented the birds to Ka Pepito.  They passed the criteria. Three days after I asked my convalescing dad how he was doing. “I’m fine, I’m fine, now.” He assured me with a big smile. 

    Writing a book such as this needs advice.  This time I needed one outside of the farm, and away from the village.  There’s no one else to my mind but someone in the academe. I went to Dr. Lilian Sison, dean of the Graduate School of UST. Dean Sison went over the manuscript and after a few days, I went to see her again. In the message for the book she said the most beautiful things that encouraged me a lot to continue writing about Nature. She said, and I quote.

“Living with Nature in Our Times can be lumped up into one word - awareness.  For today’s trend in progress and development, spurred by science and technology, and spun by globalization cannot undermine the need to answer a basic question, “Quo vadis?” (Where are you going?) To where are we headed as a civilization?”

Dean Sison continued, “Living with Nature in Our Times gives us practical knowledge that elevates our awareness on three levels: that of our perception of the things around us by our senses, that of our perception of the inner stimuli that affect not only our physical being but our psyche and emotion, and the third which occupies the highest level of awareness – that which is beyond mere perception because it requires us to imagine, plan and anticipate the future.

“Living with Nature in Our Times cautions us while walking on the busy lane of change.  It reminds us to retrain our senses and to hone our sensitivity to better appreciate the best life can offer.  Only when we are close to nature are we able to truly appreciate its exquisiteness; only when we heed the old folks’ good advice can we truly appreciate the beauty and bounty of nature.”

I could say no more, overwhelmed by Dean Sison’s message.  Then I realized.  Mataas nga ang expectation ng reader sa libro ko!  Did I write enough?  Am I understood as much as the listeners to my radio program, Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid do? Baka naman hindi ako maintindihan ni Ka Pepe at si Aling Maria.

 Dr Rotor and family: wife Cecille, Leo Carlo, Mac and Anna.

It was a weekend and it was the tail end the monsoon – the best time to be on the farm.   I did the final editing of the book here – the farm where I grew up, where I got my stories, experiences I still remember, in a small town where I used to listen to old folks.  This time I am one of them.

This same old good friend I told you earlier came to visit me. I took him out into the fields.  It was harvest time and a time of festivities of sort in the fields. The maya birds came by hordes, A gust of wind blew and my friend winked, apparently napuwing.  And he started rubbing his eyes.  Huwag, I said. Just blow you nose.  He laughed. 

“Just do it.” I said. He did once, twice, each for each nose, covering the other. Harder. He looked amazed.  The puwing is gone!  Success!  (You can try it later.)

My friend who grew up in the city complained again. “My tooth aches,” It’s  lunchtime. Sayang.  We were going to have lunch, picnic style beside a farm pond we call alug.

“Sumasakit din ang aking ngipin,” I said, … “na hindi ko matikman lahat nito,” savoring the aroma of the food being cooked.  It’s like the proverbial grandmother’s pie.

“Hindi ako nagbibiro,” He said. 

“Okay press the base of your jaw, like this,” and demonstrated how.  Open your mouth and feel the attachment of the jaw, it’s the hollow part. Press it long enough until the pain subsides.  He did it and held it there.

 “Okay ka na?”

 “Masakit pa rin.” 

 “Saan ba ang sumasakit?” Para akong dentista.

 “Doktor, nga si Dr. Rotor,” I heard a kindly old woman nearby.

 “Dito sa left.”  My friend opened his jaw. “Mali ang pinipisil mo, eh. Ang pinipisil mo as ang kanan mong jaw.”

A whole banana leaf was laid before us. We sat on the grass.  A tabo of water was passed on to each of us to wash his fingers before eating.  Then, like the old faithful Genie had arrived, we were partaking in a banquet no five-star hotel could match.

 There were hito, martiniko, broiled medium rare on uling, pesang dalag (mudfish stewed with green saba and a lot of tomato and onion, and kuhol with tanglad. Rice is newly harvested upland Milagrosa!  Miracle talaga sa bango at sarap. Everyone was quiet.  How could you with your mouth full? Now and then a dog would come from behind begging, licking.      

“How you eat this kuhol, my friend asked.  Ganito  lips-to-lips,” Matunog.  It tells your host you like the food very much. “Ayaw, eh” Pukpukin mo muna ang puit.”  Paano? Kumain ka lang. Then we had  ulang  (river crayfish). Hindi ba masakit kumagat yan?  He whispered. 

“Hindi naman alimango yan, eh. At patay na.  Sigue kumain ka lang.”  

With or without toothache, we had our fill.

Masakit pa ba ?

Ow.. Ouch.. Ow..  This time tiyan naman niya ang sumasakit.

Oo nga naman.  Pag meron kang kaibigan na katulad nito. Either you want to live long or … forget him. 

Living with nature is fun, live life best – it’s more than The Good Life. It is Renaissance Part 2. It is Postmodern Renaissance. It is Living with Nature in Our Times.

x     x     x

Winner of the Gintong Aklat Award 2003 by the Book Publishers Association of the Philippines. The book has 30 chapters (189 pp),divided into four parts, a practical guide on how one can get closer to nature, the key to a healthy and happy life. Second printing, 2008.

"Once upon a time, nature was pristine, undefiled, and unspoiled. We used to live in a dreamlike world of tropical virgin forests, and purer hidden springs, calm ponds, and serene lakes with majestic purple mountains, crowned with canopied trees. That was when people took only what they needed, caught only what they ate, and lived only in constant touch with a provident earth." (excerpt from the Introduction by Dr Anselmo Set Cabigan, professor, St Paul University QC and former director of the National Food Authority)

A Sequel to the Living with Nature Handbook (312 pp), it was launched at the Philippine International Book Fair. It won the 2006 National Book Award by the National Book Development Board jointly with The Manila Book Circle and the National Commission for the Culture and the Arts. Published by UST Publishing House, the book has 35 chapters divided into four parts. The book can be aptly described in this verse.

"Nature shares her bounty in many ways:

He who works or he who prays,

Who patiently waits or gleefully plays;

He's worthy of the same grace."

Don’t Cut the Trees, Don’t is a collection of ecology poems and paintings of nature. The tree is taken to represent the environment. Each poem and each painting is like a leaf of a tree each revealing a little of the many marvels of this unique creation. Each poem and each painting is a plea on behalf of this new vision and of this new ethics. Concealed behind each poem and each painting is the spirit of the author, Dr. Abercio V. Rotor, a man whose love and passion for the environment is well-known. (Armando F. De Jesus, Ph.D., Dean, UST Faculty of Arts and Letters)

It is a substantial collection, departing from the usual stale air of solitariness and narcissism which permeates most poetry today. It is therefore a welcome contribution to Philippine poetry in Engish, livened by visuals that add color to the poetic images.

The oeuvre is not only pleasurable because of this. The poetic ability of the poet himself enriches the whole exciting poetic experience, a blurring of the line separating man from the rest of the living creatures outside. Every poem indeed becomes “flowers in disguise” using the poet’s own words. (Ophelia A. Dimalanta, Ph.D. Director, Center for Creative Writing and Studies, UST)

Living with Folk Wisdom. Published by University of Santo Tomas, launched 2008 in the Manila International Book Fair, SMX Mall of Asia, 220 pp. "The book is a compendium of indigenous technical knowledge complemented with modern scientific thinking. The narratives offer an exploration into the world of ethno-science covering a wide range of practical interest from climate to agriculture; medicine to food and nutrition..: (Excerpt of Foreword by Dr Lilian J Sison, dean UST Graduate School).

Living with Nature in Our Times is a sequel to The Living with Nature Handbook published by the UST Publishing House in 2003. 

There are 35 chapters in this new volume grouped into four sections. Enjoying Nature’s Bounty has eleven chapters, which deal with such hobbies as Home Gardening, Landscaping and Hydroponics. The second section, Understanding Nature’s Ways, has nine chapters. Mystery of the Fig Wasp is a recent research, while The Mosquito is an update about this deadliest creature on earth. 

The third section, Conserving Our Natural Resources has seven chapters which include The 7Rs in Pollution Management, and Farming Peat Soil, a frontier of agriculture in the Philippines. The fourth and last section, Harmonious Living with Nature, has eight chapters which remind us of the importance of maintaining good relationship of man and nature.  Topics include Health and Values and Walking with Nature. 

Many of the articles in this book were taken from the lessons presented on Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People’s School-on-the-Air). This is in response to listeners requesting copies of the lessons. Like in the first book, Living with Nature in Our Times is distributed  by the publisher through popular outlets.

I would like to thank ad Veritatem, Ating Alamin Gazette and Women’s Journal,  as well as the research journals of St. Paul University QC, De La Salle University Dasmariñas, and University of Perpetual Help of Rizal for publishing my lectures and researches.  I have also included a number of these articles, written in layman’s language. 

Lastly, I wish to thank the following institutions and persons who helped me in coming up with this new volume. University of Santo Tomas, University of Perpetual Help of Rizal, De La Salle University Dasmariñas, St. Paul University Quezon City, Lyceum of the Philippines University, Philippine Broadcasting Service-Radyo ng Bayan (PBS-DZRB), National Food Authority; and UST Publishing House and staff;

To my  family Cecilia R Rotor, wife of the author and their children: Matthew Marlo, Anna Christina and Leo Carlo, sister Veneranda, and cousins Acela, Julita, Fe and Luz, and other relatives. And to all who in one way or the other made the publication of this book possible. 

Ur-urayenka Anakko (I am waiting for you, my child.)

Ur-urayenka Anakko 

(I am waiting for you, my child.)

“This world, which appears to be a great workshop in which knowledge is developed by man – which appears as progress and civilization, as a modern system of communication, as a structure of democratic freedom without any limitations – this world is not capable of making man happy." - Pope John Paul II, On the Threshold of Hope

Dr Abe V Rotor

                  
                         The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt van Rijk

I am a modern day Prodigal Son. I spent sixty long years searching and searching for a place I may call my own in the whole wide world. Yes, sixty long years of my youth and in old age – thrice longer the fiction character Rip van Winkle did sleep – and now I am back to the portals of my hometown, to the waiting arms of my father.

The proverbial Lamp I still hold flickers, but it is but a beacon in embers now, for it had spent its luminance in the darkness of human weakness and failures, it beamed across the ocean of ignorance and lost hope, it trailed the path of many adventures and discoveries, and it kept vigil in the night while I slept.

And what would my father say? He meets me, embraces me, and calls everyone. “Kill the fattest calf! Let us rejoice.”

San Vicente is my home. It is the bastion of my hopes and ideals. At the far end on entering the old church is written on the altar, faded by the elements of time and pleading hands of devotees, Ur-urayenka Anakko – I am waiting for you my child.

When the world is being ripped by conflicts or pampered with material progress, when mankind shudders at the splitting of the atom and the breaking of the code of life, when the future is viewed on high rise edifices or clouded by greenhouse gases, the world is but a speck in the vast universe – my town becomes more than ever relevant to the cause for which it has stood through the centuries - the sanctuary of idealism in a troubled world, home of hundreds of professionals in many fields of human endeavor.

“Kill the fattest calf,” I hear my father shout with joy. It is celebration. It is a symbol of achievement more than I deserve. But my feelings is that I am standing on behalf of my colleagues for I am but an emissary. Out there in peace and trials, in villages and metropolises, in all endeavors and walks of life, many “Vincentians” made their marks, either recognized on the stage or remembered on stone on which their names are carved. I must say, it is an honor and privilege that I am here in humility to represent them that I may convey their unending faith and trust to our beloved hometown.

The world has changed tremendously, vastly, since I passed under the town's arch to meet the world some sixty years ago. I have met wise men who asked the famous question “Quo vadis?” - where are you going? I can only give a glimpse from the eye of a teacher, far for the probing mind of Alvin Toffler in Future Shock, or those of Naisbitt and Aburdane, renowned modern prophets. Teachers as I know, and having been trained as one, see the world as it is lived; they make careful inferences, and take a bird’s eye view cautiously. They are conveyors of knowledge, and even with modern teaching tools and communication technology, cannot even qualify as chroniclers, nay less of forecasters. I have always strived to master the art of foretelling the future, but frankly I can only see it from atop a misty mountain. How I wish too, that I can fully witness the fruits of the seed of knowledge a teacher has sown in the mind of the young.

Limited my experience may be, allow me to speak my mind about progress and developments in the sixty years I was away from home, but on the other side of midnight, so to speak.

1. The monster that Frankenstein made lurks in nuclear stockpiles, chides with scientists tinkering with life, begging to give him a name and a home.

2. Our blue planet has an ugly shade of murk and crimson – fire consuming the forests, erosion eating out the land, polar ice shrinking, rising sea flooding the shorelines, and gas emission boring a hole in its jacket.

3. One race one nation equals globalization. How we have taken over evolution in our hands. We are playing God, is Paradise Lost Part 2 in the offing?

4. The world is wired, it travels fast on two feet – communication and transportation. The world has shrunk into a village. Homogenization is the death sentence amid a bed of roses for mankind.

5. Man-induced phenomena are too difficult to separate from those of nature. We take the latter as an excuse of our follies, a rationalization that runs counter to be rational. Only the human species has both the capability to build or destroy – and yet we love to destroy what we build.

6. The dangerous game of numbers is a favorite game, and our Mother Earth spaceship is getting overloaded. Man’s needs, more so man’s want, become burgeoning load of Mother Earth, now sick and aging. Will Pied Piper ever come back and take our beloved young ones away from us, as he did in Hamlyn many years ago?

7. Conscience, conscience, where is spirituality that nourishes it. Where have all the religious teachings gone? Governance – where is the family, the home? Peace and order – Iraq, Afghanistan – another Korea, another Vietnam, only in another place, in another time. And now social unrest is sweeping over North Africa and the Middle East, spreading to many parts of the world.

8. Janus is progress, and progress is Janus. It is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is The Prince and the Pauper. Capitalism has happy and sad faces – the latter painted in pain and sadness on millions all over the world. It is inequity that makes the world poor; potentially we have more than enough food, clothing, shelter, and energy for everybody. What ideology can save the world other than capitalism?

As I grew older I did not only learn to adjust with the realities of life as I encountered it but to grasp its meaning from the points of view of famous philosophers and writers. I studied it with the famous lines from William Blake’s famous poem, Auguries of Innocence.

To wit.

“To see the world in a grain of sand;

And a Heaven a wild flower;

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.”

               - William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

If ever I have ventured into becoming a redeemer of sort, armed with a pen in hand, I too, have learned from Blake’s verse of the way man should view the world in all its magnanimity yet in simplicity. If ever I have set foot to reach the corners of the Earth, and failed, I am consoled by the humble representation of “a grain of sand” that speaks of universal truth and values.

And beauty? If I have not found it in a garden of roses, I dare not step on a flowering weed. And posterity and eternity? They are all ensconced in periodicity, a divine accident of existence – to say that each and every one of us is here in this world by chance – an unimaginable chance – at “a certain time and place” which - and I believe - has a purpose in whatever and however one lives his life. But I would say that a lifetime is all it takes “to see the world” and be part of it. It is a lifetime that we realize the true meaning of beauty, experience “infinity and eternity”. Lifetime is a daily calendar of victories and defeats.

While the world goes around and around . . .

The world like in Aristotle’s time continue to struggle with the preservation of values; the species will continue to evolve as postulated by Darwin; culture will express itself more fully since the first painting of early man dwelling in the caves of Lascaux in France.

Trade and commerce will continue to progress, reaches a plateau, and declines - a normal curve that goes with the rise and fall of civilizations. Yet leaders do not see it that way. Not even the Utopia of conquerors like Alexander the Great whose global economic vision two thousand five hundred years ago is basically the same as that of the great powers of today - United States, European Union, ASEAN.

The great religions will continue to bring man to his knees and look into heavens amidst knowledge revolution and growing complexity of living, Man’s infinitesimal mind continues to probe the universe. Never has man been so busy, so bothered, so confused, yet so determined than ever before, trying to fill up God’s Seventh Day.

As I go on reflecting I came across the book of Pope John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, 1994. He warns us succinctly.

“This world, which appears to be a great workshop in which knowledge is developed by man – which appears as progress and civilization, as a modern system of communication, as a structure of democratic freedom without any limitations – this world is not capable of making man happy." - Pope John Paul II, On the Threshold of Hope

Now I am home, my father, in my hometown.  Thank you for you have taught me and instilled in me the spirit of virtue and fortitude. Thank you for making me a Vincentian.

Let me sleep now in your arms. ~

The Mystery Child

The Mystery Child

Dr Abe V Rotor

In a workshop for adult leaders, the instructor asked the participants to draw on the blackboard a beautiful house, ones dream house ideal to live in and raise a family.

It was of course, an exercise, which in the minds of the participants was as easy as copying a model from experience and memory. Besides it is a universal dream to own such a house, and its concept allows free interplay of both reason and imagination. The participants formed a queue to allow everyone to contribute his own idea on the blackboard.

The first in the queue drew the posts of the house, on which the succeeding members made the roof and floor. The rest proceeded in making the walls and windows.

In the second round the participants added garage, porch, veranda, staircase, gate, fence, swimming pool, TV antennae, and other amenities.

Finally the drawing was completed and the participants returned to their seats. What make a dream house, an ideal house? A lively “sharing session” followed and everyone was happy with the outcome, and none could be happier than the teacher who learned this exercise in an international forum.

Just then a child was passing by and peeped through the open door. He saw the drawing of the house on the blackboard. He entered the classroom and stood for a long time looking at the drawing. The teacher approached him, the participants turned to see the unexpected visitor.

The child pointed at the drawing and exclaimed, “But there are no neighbors!”
In the same village there was a similar workshop exercise, but this time the participants were to draw a community. The participants made a queue on the blackboard and after an hour of working together, came up with a beautiful drawing of a community.

In the drawing there are houses and at the center are a church, a school, village hall, and plaza. A network of roads and bridges shows the sections of the village. People are busy doing their chores, especially in the market area. Indeed it is a typical village.

The participants discussed, “What constitute a community.” It was a lively discussion and everyone was so delighted with their “masterpiece” that the teacher even wrote at the corner of the blackboard “Save.”

Just then a child was passing by. When he saw the drawing on the backboard through the open door, he entered the classroom. He went close to the drawing and looked at it for a long time. The teacher and participants fell silent looking at their very young guest.

The child exclaimed, “But there are no trees, no birds; there are no mountains, no fields, no river!”

Some days had passed since the two workshops. Virtually no one ever bothered to find out who the child was or where he lived.

Then the whole village began to search for the child, but they never found him – not in the village, not in the neighboring village, not in the capital, and not in any known place.

Who was the child? Everyone who saw him never forgot his kindly beautiful and innocent face, and they pondered on his words which became the two greatest lessons in ecology.

But there are no neighbors!

But there are no trees, no birds; there are no mountains, no fields, no river! ~

Where have all the Gardens Gone?

Where have all the Gardens Gone? 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Death of a Garden. Acrylic paintings by the author, 2015

Where have all the gardens gone,

the butterflies and honeybees,

dancing and riding on the breeze,

dewdrops sparkling in the sun?

Where have all the children gone,

reminiscent of old Pied Piper,

lured to a new land somewhere,

and never again to be found?

Where have all the ladies gone,

in "loves-me-loves-me-not" game,

though lose or gain it's the same,

flower and love knitted as one?

Where have all the good life gone,

Nature's gift to the living world

bound by a collective accord.

Lo! to man the lost prodigal son. ~

Ode to the World War II Memorial at St Paul University QC: A Tribute to the Filipino heroes of WWII

Ode to the World War II Memorial at St Paul University QC: A Tribute to the Filipino heroes of WWII

The Japanese occupation of the Philippines took place between 1942 and 1945, when Imperial Japan occupied the Commonwealth of the Philippines during World War II. The invasion of the Philippines started on 8 December 1941, ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. About 43,000 Japanese troops began the main invasion of Luzon; American and Filipino troops began to amass on Bataan. It was also in December 1945 when Japanese Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita was sentenced to death for war crimes. 

Dr Abe V Rotor

World War II memorial at St Paul University QC

Take me to the hallowed ground of war victims and victors
From early man to biblical times to Afghanistan
In the caves of Lascaux and in the arena of the gladiators,
To Alexander's campaign to Napoleon's last stand.

Take me to Auschwitz camp to Iwo Jima and to Bataan
To Flanders Field where crosses lie row by row
That the youth may know Armageddon's meaning to man
For a better world to live in tomorrow. ~

NOTE: SPU-QC, then a novitiate of the St Paul of Chartres sisters, served as a Japanese camp during WWII.  Before it was liberated in 1945, the main building was torched to ruins. It was later rebuilt to house the St Paul College, now a university.    

The Lost EcoSanctuary of St Paul University QC

 The Lost EcoSanctuary of St Paul University QC

Original Grotto

By Dr Abe V Rotor
_________________________________
The only Ecological Sanctuary of its kind in this part of Metro Manila, the former Eco Sanctuary of SPUQC is now reduced into a pocket, and hedged by high rise buildings and the elevated MRT track. An artificial waterfall and a maze of huge bird cages exacerbate the shrunken condition. There's little semblance of it to the original garden which was a living gene bank to some four hundred plant species, including transient ones. It used to maintain two greenhouses for exotic and indigenous species. The garden was a biological laboratory and a regular field classroom. Dr Anselmo S Cabigan, a well-known botanist and ASEAN Research Awardee was in charge of the garden for more than a decade. Many thesis works in biology - as well as in social science - were conducted and completed here. I had the privilege of finding the garden conducive to writing. Here students in humanities composed their best poems, worked on their best paintings and photographs - masterpieces in their own right, and found a new chapter of their lives. I too, found the place conducive to write. A large portion of my books were written here - Light in the Woods (Megabooks), Nymphaea: Beauty in the Morning (Giraffe Books) and Sunshine on Raindrops (Megabooks). I am afraid I may not find again another garden where I can write again. Goodbye, Saint Paul EcoSanctuary, Goodbye.
------------------------------------------------------------

John Milton was already blind when he wrote Paradise Regained. He once said that Paradise can be regained, even while we are still on Earth. In a world of darkness, it seems as if the world of beauty becomes more beautiful, the taken for granted becomes suddenly precious, the abstract becomes virtual reality.

Similarity Helen Keller, who grew up in a world of darkness, “saw” the entirety of a beautiful world in just three days in her masterpiece, If I were Given Three Days to See. It is similarly the inner self that stirs man’s longing for God through Nature.

“Brother Sun, brothers flying in the sky, crawling on earth, swimming in the sea - Glory to God in all his creation!” exulted St. Francis of Assisi, a man of God who lit the world through natural and divine friendship. Indeed, we made an unerring choice in proclaiming him the Father of Ecology.

We can make on a small patch of earth, an empty lot hemmed by buildings, and amid roaring cars and noisy peddlers, into a thin slice of once Paradise, in the words of an artist, “splashed by tired sun and breeze.” It may be far from any mountain or sea; but it can stand proud, this little green belt of liana and shrubs short of a jungle, carpets here and there of herbs and annuals, clusters of canopy layers and emergent, and a series of man-made ponds.

It may be bare and simple to be called an ecosystem. However, what it conveys to be more important is the reminder that man lost Paradise because he was disobedient to the orderliness of nature. His attempt to recreate a garden even of its humblest kind is both a conscious and unconscious act of repentance. And we move a step away from guilt in sighs of relief as we commune with the beauty that manifests a wholesome treaty between nature and man.

I had the experience of working in a school where there was once a garden where white lotus grew on a pond. The whiteness of the flowers speaks of the immaculateness of our Lady’s personhood.

Here grew the reddest of all Passiflora, a plant whose flower resembles the three nails that pinned our savior to a wooden cross, which became the symbol of Christianity. One would encounter a row of thorny Euphorbia, and, cruel as it may look from any angle and at any stage of its growth, good-natured man baptized the plant splendens, for the historical value resembling the crown that mocked Christ. The crown of thorns reminds us of the humility of Christ.

Imaging walking to the botanical garden as I did before twenty years ago. The lilies on the pathway led to where a beautiful tree, Erythrina, once stood serene and beautiful. Its demise was consoling. I remember its deep red inflorescence swaying in the wind; its gnarled and deep furrowed trunk and branches exuding a seasoned look, but its whole crown lent freshness to its surroundings and gave life to an old adobe wall covered with mosses and clinging ferns.

Touch the lily flower - it’s fluer-de-lies, white Hippeastrum, a distinctive mark of the royal family of France, adopted by the St Paul of Chartres as emblem of the congregation. It was found growing in a garden in a small village of Levesville, not far from the city of Chartres in France, where the congregation was founded three hundred  years ago. The universality of the lily flower speaks of the essence of its worldwide mission.

At the end of a covered walk I found myself standing before a strange looking pine. It is not a pine, though it looked like one. It was Pandanus my good friend, Dr. Sel Cabigan, was studying. It bore two fruits, which resembled those of edible species growing on some Pacific islands.

“Pandan is a staple food of many islanders,” he said. "To Filipinos, pandang mabango imparts aroma to lechong manok and cooked rice.” He explained. The popular coastal Pandan, a tree, (Pandanus tintorius), ripraps the shorelines and prevents their erosion. I listened to a fellow naturalist holding the evidences of creation, picturesque in virtual reality.

There were two giant palms on the school campus: fishtail palm (Caryota rhumphiana philippinensis)*, source of a starch similar to sago, and royal palm (Roystonia elata)*, the tallest and the most regal of all members of the palm family. Here they soared like towers in the summer’s blue sky, and pierced the fog during the Siberian High during the Amihan, and braved the smog on busy days.

The grotto most of the time was serene. Viny Passiflora covered the entire dome that sheltered a cave where the apparition of Our Lady to the young Bernadette took place centuries ago. The dramatic scene reflected on the calm waters of the adjoining pond where students spent quiet moments.

That was twenty years ago. A school building has been constructed on its former site, much taller than the Royal Palm which was cut down to give way to the modern edifice. 

I wonder if that biblical Paradise had already lost its beauty and meaning to our forebears by their own disobedience, so that they had no choice but to abandon it. ~

Nature Murals on the Wall

 Nature Murals on the Wall

"Gather the clouds into fog and mist,
gentle rain and a stream;
Gather the fish, the birds and the beasts
into a peaceful reign." - avr

Murals and Verses by Dr Abe V Rotor

Composite Landscape. There are three scenic parts arranged vertically to suit the design of the sala of a private residence. Upon entering one is led to look up and down the painting. Thus the elongated design has a foreshortening effect. There was originally a rainbow, but it was toned down so as not to steal the show, so to speak. It's suggestiveness however, has a strong effect from the balcony eye level. (Dasmariñas Village, Makati MM)

Where man makes a living, a garden by his hands he makes,

At the foot of a hill, on the tip of a pen, on rivers and lakes,

He contends - even only a piece of that Paradise lost - he regains;

From knowledge and disobedience, the whole world gains.

Tropical Rainforest. A composite painting of a running stream through the woods, apparently near human habitation as shown by the presence of promenaders and fishing enthusiasts enjoying themselves as in a park. Also, the stream empties into a pond of Nymphaea and lotus on the foreground giving the impression that the scene is at the edge of a clearing. Nonetheless the whole scene speaks of an undisturbed ecosystem. The presence of wildlife shows that this is their natural habitat. SPUQC, AVR

Gather the clouds into fog and mist,
gentle rain and stream;
Gather the fish, the birds and the beasts
into a peaceful reign.

Ruins of Colonialism. Keenness in history leads the hand to re-create events in composite order. The sky and landscape blend well and create a peaceful ambiance in contrast with that of the ruins on the foreground. Infinity can be felt towards the background where boundaries of land and sky dissolve in mist and cloud. SPUQC AVR

Ruins, your silence disturbs at this time of tempest,

When dawn breaks like any dawn sans rays of noble past;

The day shall come to put people again to the test,

Like spring, rise again from their state of outcast.

Doves Flying at Dawn. There is a feeling of ascendancy in this painting. The diagonal perspective enhances such movement, while splashes of light heightens daybreak. The rough sea and dark foreground give contrast to the painting. The hideous presence of large reptiles creates enigma as to what the artist wanted to imply. Mystery in art is an important element. (Wall Mural SPU-QC)

Take me from this world a moment
    to be with You in this holy event;
From your seat to down below I see
     my friends, my enemies - and me.

Watershed. Unlike the first painting the perspective is normal "V" which explains the title - a funnel shaped valley to catch and store rainfall and in the process make a natural garden with the colors of spring, summer and autumn, thus exuding a fairyland effect. The landscape speaks clearly of a pristine environment far and free from humans. (Wall mural SPU-QC)

         Ask Ceres or the mightiest God of all -
       if Nature keeps herself better if we depart;
    with her housekeeping and her art -
was Paradise redeemed after the Fall?

Under the Sea Cavern. Simulating stalactites and stalagmites in caves, the artist simulated the same conditions on some coral reef ledges where the sun could hardly penetrate. Mystery lies inside the cavern which only the imagination can fathom. A predator waits for its prey, small fishes group together for safety, shell fish cling lazily on rocks, while seaweeds sway freely like a curtain. It is a stage of sort where drama of life in the deep takes place everyday. (Wall mural, SPUQC, AVR). 

I have wondered many times if fish ever sleep

     or they just lie down very still

in some quiet deep, like a flock of sheep

     after their fill lie on a grassy hill.

Other creatures gain this way their ease

     and man by the power of his will

takes the long and winding road to peace 

     searching for that quiet pool or hill. 

 Wheels of Rainbow mural showing details (5ft x 8 ft) by AVRotor, June 6, 2012

They come through prism splitting the light of heaven,

     In joyful, glorious colors of seven,

Each color the color of life in joy and sorrow,

     Today and the promise of tomorrow,

They pray for heaven to come down, out from the blue,

     The long Promise to billions waiting to be true,

Where the discs as one on some fertile ground must grow

     Into one Eden arched by the rainbow. ~

Light in the Woods. Are there images on the painting? How many trees are there. Can you see a face? Whose face is it? The inverted "V" perspective creates a panoramic effect leading the eye toward the center and background. SPUQC AVR

It inspired a soul to write a book*

that touches the eye and heart;
this little light in a nook
shines where good and evil part.

* Light the the Woods, by AVR, Megabooks 1995