Light up your life!

Light up your life!

Dr Abe V Rotor

 

Get close to Nature, befriend her creatures.

Birds sing not only for their own kind,

     but to the world that shares their joy,

in melodies notes may not capture,

     but the heart and spirit they buoy.

Find joy with a baby and bring back the joyful years of life.

Love the word child for it never dies;

     it may sleep as we grow old;

it wakes us up like The Little Prince,

     when we're lost and troubled.

When the head seems too heavy to carry... 

when life seems to come to a stop ...

Give yourself a break before your break down.

Have you walked the sea floor at its lowest ebb,

     on the shoal and coral reef?

It's Nature's way of cleansing and renewing life

     in a cycle of joy and grief.

Get out of your shadow...

There is a girl afraid of her own shadow,

     she tried to run away from it in panic.

She outgrew the trauma and even talked

     to her shadow when lost and sick.

Catch butterflies and friends...

Make happy faces...lean on a strong shoulder

Puppet show time - you the actor and subject.

 

Get out of your box. Be the real you.

Author and daughter Anna, Avilon Zoo, Rizal

 

Be a dear or deer ... flower girls the second time around.

Get out of your box before it's too late;

     prison disguised in comfort and care;

it's all yours to act and no one else will,

     to open its door or break its walls. ~

A Singular of Roses

A Singular of Roses

Mural and Verse by Dr Abe V Rotor

A single rose is all the roses in the world;

     Because a rose is a rose is a rose.*

Nothing describes it best but its word -

     Oh, the power of a single rose!

* This expression comes from the American author Gertrude Stein. It appeared in her poem “Sacred Emily,” which was written in the year 1913 and published in 1922.

Say goodbye to childhood in drawing.

Say goodbye to childhood in drawing. 

“In the happiest of our childhood memories, our parents were happy, too.” — Robert Brault

Dr Abe V Rotor

Mackie 11 years old  makes her logo, insignia, imprimatur, showing her likes, interests, inclinations, creativity, and the like, for the whole world to see. 

Drawings reveal who you are, who your friends and associates are, 

 your feelings and dreams as well. Early adolescence is the dawn 

to becoming a member of society in the real sense.

  

The transition may start early and extends through the teen years, childhood giving way to adulthood, biologically and socially.  Transition is actually transformation. You are no longer a girl but a lady. 

Venus, goddess of beauty and love; and Minerva, goddess of wisdom and the arts, will soon descend from Mt Olympus, and knock on Mackie's door, and she gladly welcomes them awed and puzzled. There is no turning back now. Childhood, they say, is forever but it is only its memory that lives on. ~

  

“When we are children, we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.” — Patrick Rothfuss

We Live in a Time of Hope and Change A Response

We Live in a Time of Hope and Change

A Response

                                             Dr Abercio V Rotor
                                   Golden Jubilee Awardee 1999

St. Paul University QC

Conversion of St Paul on the Road to Damascus, a painting of the author (8ft x 8ft), 1995, at the former SPUQC Museum

We realize and accept the big challenge that these awards expect us to carry on as we prepare to face the closing of this century, which marks the grandest milestone of our history, and, on the other hand, anticipates the promise of the next millennium.

Experience tells us of the dichotomy of the future as we walk the road the road of change characterized by danger and opportunity, uncertainty and optimism. However, we tend to believe that the future is bright, and often the prophet in us sees it as a superhighway, sans the predicaments of Nostradamus, the man who saw tomorrow.

At our feet lies a shrunken planet which we exaggeratedly call a Global Village. Definitely our sense of dimension and time is wrong. It is as if we are interpreting literally William Blake’s philosophical masterpiece, Auguries of Innocence, to wit:

“To see a 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.”

Breakthroughs in technology, pyramidal corporate structures, make a genie of a capitalistic society to which the world lies subservient. Paradoxically, through the present Information Revolution, the tentacles of such order have unwittingly clamped down reason in the Homo sapiens now being shaped into a singular mass where richness in diversity begins to dissolve and becomes polarized in the belief that modernization will lead us to the Good Life.

Is this the reason why The Hunchback of Notre Dame lost its socio-political theme in a recent Disney comedy musicale? Was it because of money, because the New Order lacks conscience, because tradition is passe? Whatever happened to Markham’s philosophy on Millet’s struggle, in Juan Luna’s Spolarium?

My fellow awardee and I believe that the Good Life that our fast changing world promises us is more than power. Still, we must rely on man’s most powerful tool that is well tested in the long process of evolution and in the quest for advancement, and that is the power of the human mind, its imagination and its reason.

While there is need to explore the world around us , there is equally a need to reflect into ourselves and onto God.

If truth is to be found in inventions and formulas, we must not forget that the foundation of truth is in the Great Book.

A clear mind about the issues of the world will merely lie obscure without a stout heart that accompanies it, and which is willing to deal with its imperfections.

Peace, that inner peace in every righteous person, in order to exist truly, must be an instrument of reconciliation to settle conflicts and erase tensions, and to teach us to live harmoniously with our fellowmen. Only then can true understanding beget justice, compassion. This is a true gain of mankind, but like any other genuine gain, it cannot be attained without pain. This is reality’s finest moment, a common dream come true. That is why we are measured by our fidelity to our dream, however distant that dream is and impossible as it may seem.

Yes, periodicity – when we came and where we are, through an incidence of time and space – is not devoid of a purpose, a purpose that is part of a grand design of the great Creator, the purpose of life itself, the greatest gift of man from God. And as a gift it must grow, grow into a mountain it must, before it is shared.

In sharing that dream, we indulge in vision, hope and prayer which bring us closer to God. We are not only the dominant organism on earth, we are the likeness of our Creator. If there is one that likeness must fit best, it is the Paulinian. Our vision of her is “a perfect woman, nobly planned,” and bright with something of an angel light that shines, but she, too, takes pride in reaching out to the less fortunate. She sits on a swivel chair, walks on the unbeaten path. She shines in competition, to illuminate the vision that the youth is human life’s instrument of perfection.

These awards are a perfect symbol of the immortal relationship between the old and the young. They help bring generations together for common visions and

Aspirations. The old may have earned the natural right to preach to the young, but the young see more clearly the errors of the past and are more willing to rectify them.

As we walk on the road of change to the year 2000 and beyond, and, perchance find ourselves at a crossroad where we hesitate to proceed, let us look back, and there we will find a lamp shining through the portals of our institution – a light that once upon a dark night on a lonely road to Damascus, a stranger found his way to the hearts of men and into the kingdom of Christ. ~

“The more bombers, the less room for doves of peace.” – Nikita Khrushchev {Former Premier of the Soviet Union}

A Message of Peace to Russia's War on Ukraine

“How many roads must a man walk down, before you call him a man? How many seas must a white dove sail, before she sleeps in the sand? Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly, before they’re forever banned?” – Bob Dylan ~

Paintings by  Dr Abe V Rotor

White doves in the sky, an acrylic painting showing details, 

AV Rotor, 2020 

 

“The more bombers, the less room for doves of peace.” – Nikita Khrushchev {Former Premier of the Soviet Union}

“Love is the dove of peace, the spirit of brotherhood. It is tenderness and compassion, forgiveness and tolerance.” – Wilfred Peterson

“To all new truths, or renovation of old truths, it must be as in the ark between the destroyed and the about-to-be renovated world. The raven must be sent out before the dove, and ominous controversy must precede peace and the olive wreath.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“I had a dove and the sweet dove died; and I have thought it died of grieving. O, what could it grieve for? Its feet were tied, with a silken thread of my own hands’ weaving.” – John Keats

On the fences, the shiny blackbirds with red epaulets clicked their dry call. The meadowlarks sang like water, and the wild doves, concealed among the bursting leaves of the oaks, made a sound of restrained grieving.” – John Steinback

Acknowledgement: Quotations from the Internet

Wounded Peace

                                                        Wounded Peace 

 The world has never been at peace.  Two world wars, Iran, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and many conflicts all over.  This painting by the author is dedicated to peace in today's troubled Ukraine. 

Peace they bring these white doves in the sky;

passing over Flanders's Field of long ago,

when suddenly fired upon from down below;

it's history repeating the battle cry. - avr

Dr Abe V Rotor

Wounded Peace in acrylic by the author 2020

“Expand thy wings, celestial dove. Brood o’er our nature’s night, on our disordered spirits move, and let there now be light.” – Charles Wesley

“We must combine the toughness of the serpent with the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

“And there my little doves did sit, with feathers softly brown and glittering eyes that showed their right to general nature’s deep delight.” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning

“And the dove came to him in the evening; and lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.” – Genesis 8:11

Acknowledgement and thanks: Quotations from the Internet

A Monday with Saint Paul, the Apostle*

 A Monday with Saint Paul, the Apostle*

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

 

Modern campus of St. Paul University QC Metro Manila

One Monday I visited Saint Paul with inquiries I seldom asked before;

Fifteen years I served him, a teacher of his school, keeper of a museum;

Time has changed the world, global is its effect - would St Paul tell me

More of the ways of the world to give life a meaning? So did I assume.

"Tell me where Damascus Road is where you heard God speak;

Tell me how you crossed the Mediterranean in a storm and survive;

Tell me how you carried the Word among unbelievers and Pharisees;

Tell me how you faced death yet kept alive your faith and noble pride.

"Tell me where have the Gentiles you converted and followers gone;

Tell me how you wrote the scriptures that gave the bible a wider view;

Tell me how man can become a saint and a saint to become man;

Tell me how to reach heaven without striving to be a martyr like you."

The sun rose high, sending reflection of gray clouds on giant glass panes;

The pavement is bare, the marble floor a mirage, yet empty as the sea;

High rise the buildings are - towers and spires, proud symbols of power;

In the deep silence, I heard the same words, "Why do you persecute me." ~

Saul on Damascus Road Mural (8ft x 8ft,) painted by the author, the first of six murals that graced the former St Paul museum for 15 years (1995 to 2010). 

*Dedicated to St. Paul on his Conversion, celebrated on January 25, 2014.  Author is a native of San Vicente, Ilocos Sur, neighboring municipality of Metro Vigan whose patron saint is St Paul the Apostle. The Conversion of Paul the Apostle, was, according to the New Testament, an event that took place in the life of Paul the Apostle which led him to cease persecuting early Christians and to become a follower of Jesus. It is normally dated by researchers to AD 33–36, which means that the event took place after the crucifixion of Christ.  Paul was not among the original twelve apostles, yet he carried on Christ mission no other apostle or disciple had ever done as much. For which Paul earned this title as "apostle" of Christ, even if they never met in real life. The phrases Pauline conversion,

Damascene conversion and Damascus Christophany, and Road to Damascus allude to this event.

"Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own [will], is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." - Paul the Apostle

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