Requiem to a Forest (Article in Progress)

Requiem to a Forest

Art Works by Dr Abe V Rotor

"The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness." 

-  John Muir, Naturalist

The Last of the Hornbills, wall mural at the author's residence

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur 

"It's a dirge I hear, once your cheerful call,

its refrain drowned in silence in eerie air;

in the like of Vivaldi's music, if I recall,

seeing you on screen in an easy chair." - avr

"He who plants a tree loves others beside himself."

- Thomas Fuller

Sentry Eyes in the Woods, palette knife painting in acrylic AVR 

We are not alone, all eyes are upon us,

     spirits of Nature that we can't see;

with respect and humility, we must,

     and say, bari-bari, tabi-tabi.

 "Time spent amongst trees is never wasted time." — Anonymous Walk My World

Soil Erosion Aftermath, mounted tree saplings remains 

and rocks on nature painting as background AVR 

What Nature built for thousands of years,

from rocks onto a beautiful garden;

man's folly and lust reversed the process,

the garden today's but a lost Eden.  

"Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky." — Kahlil Gibran

Remains of a Forest Wildfire, glass painting AVR

"In the woods we return to reason and faith." — Ralph Waldo Emerson Walk My World

Burnt Forest in Darkness, in acrylic AVR 

"Learn character from trees, values from roots, and change from leaves." 

— Tasneem Hameed

Charred Earth, art work in acrylic and cardboard AVR

"Requiem to our planet, a pessimist's view,

      a prophesy in its own time come true;

  indifference in the midst of the Good Life,

      its epilogue in suffering and strife." - avr

 "When the last living thing has died on account of us, how poetical it would be if Earth could say... 'It is done.' People did not like it here." — Kurt Vonnegut

 Rainforest in its Glory, acrylic AVR

 

“To see a world in a grain of sand,

     And heaven in a wild flower;

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

     And Eternity in an hour.”

                        - William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

 "The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn," - American poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson. ~

Planned Obsolescence: Technology's Paradox (Article in Progress)

Planned Obsolescence: Technology's Paradox

On display at the Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

"Our whole economy is based on planned obsolescence...we make good products, we induce people to buy them, and then the next year we deliberately introduce something that will make these products old-fashioned, out of date, obsolete." - Brooks Stevens, Years, People, Next Year

Dr Abe V Rotor

1. Plumbing Obsolescence

 Unserviceable plumbing items is "big money and waste." 

 

"Waste, waste, waste everywhere!"

  once useful, handy in our home

  likened to "Water, water, everywhere, 

  but not a drop to drink"* syndrome. - avr

*From Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

2. Keys and Locks - security turned oblivion

Closeup of obsolete locks and keys 

3. Aborted Pens and Pencils

Aborted and spent ball pens, marker pens and pencil stubs constitute

a major waste in offices, homes and schools. 

4. We are living in a plastic world

   

"Plastic, Plastics - and more, Plastics." 

-------------------------------

* Planned obsolescence is a business strategy where products are intentionally designed with a limited, functional lifespan or rendered unfashionable, forcing consumers to purchase replacements sooner.

Art Work: Bird's Nest

Art Work 

Bird's Nest

Dr Abe V Rotor

Bird's Nest by AV Rotor (Nest diameter 10")  

On display at the Living with Nature Center.  

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur 2026

"Imagery takes us into the sky

 and rejoice in seeing birds fly.

 Where are the others, and why?

 Lo! their nests are silent and dry."

* Root network of a dead Anahaw (Livistona rotundifolia) ensconced in a clay flower pot, mounted on a circular cake pad, with a pair of empty chicken eggs. Wall mural provides   imaginary background.  Art work may be displayed on a sala table or hanged on a wall. ~

"Ur-urayenka Anakko." (I am waiting for you, my child.) - Based on the Parable of the Prodigal Son

Ur-urayenka Anakko.

(I am waiting for you, my child.)

Based on the  Parable of the Prodigal Son

“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 fifty long years searching and searching for a place I may call my own in the whole wide world. Yes, fifty long years of my youth and in old age – twice 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 or the breaking of the code of life, when the future is viewed with high rise edifices or clouded by greenhouse gases – 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 arch to meet the world some fifty 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 fifty 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 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 it 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 – Ukraine, Syria, Taiwan, Iraq, Afghanistan – another Korea, another Vietnam, only in another place, in another time. And now social unrest is sweeping over Asia, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

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; 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.

 - William Blake

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 concept as that of the great powers of today - United States, European Union, ASEAN - envision.

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. I do not wish for comfort. I just want to 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. ~

17th Century San Vicente Ferrer Parish Church

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

UN International Women's Day (IWD) Feature: Veneranda Valdez Rotor, OFS - Religious Beyond the Walls of Convent

United Nations International Women's Day (IWD) March 8, 2026   Veneranda Valdez Rotor, OFS

Religious Beyond the Walls of Convent

Original Title: Keeper of Our Ancestral Home

   

"There is always the last of a distinct breed,"

"We are not alone. We may be of different races, but God has placed us so that we journey on the same path." (James  Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans.)

Rest in Peace, Beloved Sister Venie

 "Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand."

 - Saint Mother Teresa

1. Sister Venie Brings in the Lighter Side of Life

Sr Venie and niece Anna playfully mimic a windmill.  "Be like the windmill 

and be free of worries and cares in life, even only for a moment."  

Bangui, Ilocos Norte 

 

Sr Venie with her cousins: Fe, former UP professor; Sister Trinidad, a Paulinian sister; and Cely, retired teacher.  All are Rotors from San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. 

Manang Venie's last birthday at the age of 83 is celebrated 

with love and thanksgiving with the family.  

Rambutan grows on the backyard of the author's residence 

in Don Antonio Heights 2, Quezon City.  Sr Venie and cousin 

Julie Rotor exchange pleasantries on gardening.  

Mackie 3, with her yaya Gelyn and Lola Venie*

          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. ~

*Mackie is granddaughter of the author, Venie was his sister.

** The Little Prince novelette by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

 

 

Sister Venie is always cheerful with relatives and guests whether at home 

or on outings.  

 

 

She enjoys company with her niece, Anna (left photo).  She is Lola to Leo 

and Mackie.  Photos taken at our ancestral home in San Vicente. 

  

With Bishop Bacani in a book fair on the 400th anniversary of UST.  

With her are sister-in-law  Cecille (right), and niece Anna (left).

 

 

 

Sister Venie shares some light moments with house guests 

at our humble art gallery 

 

Family weekend at the beach 

We conduct children's summer art workshop at home in San Vicente.

After-mass photos with our relatives and friends, San Vicente Diocesan Shrine

Left photo, our lifelong yaya,  Basang (with white hair) - threshes local wheat harvest; 

street view of our ancestral home.

2.  Sister Venie Loves the Garden

 

Alukon  or Himbaba-o is a favorite vegetable of Sister Venie

Deciduous Himbaba-o or Alukon (Ilk), on-the-spot pastel  drawing by the author, La Union Botanical Garden, SFLU. Author's sister Venie, gathers staminate flowers of alukon at our home garden in San Vicente. Alukon is scientifically known as Broussonetia luzonica (Blanco), Family Moraceae.  It is also referred to as Birch Flower. 

What comes to mind painting or drawing a culinary subject, such as the alukon tree standing in a thicket on a hillside away from town? Imagine being a Survivor searching for any available food in the wild. Or Henry David Thoreau living alone by the Walden Pond. (And writing a treatise of man and society of this title) 

It's a delicacy of the Ilocanos - alukon

to the Tagalogs in Quezon - himbaba-o

It comes in other names in other places;

its flowers cooked into diningding or stew,

with kamote to thicken its soup - buridibud, 

and topped with broiled tilapia or hito. ~

 

Two-layer bunch of banana is indeed a bountiful harvest.

Meet me in the shade of trees,

      by the waterfall and garden pond;

among loyal friends of nature, 

      where silence the sweetest sound.

 

         Heritage trees for generations - 

past, present, and future - 

 living monument of kinship,

   bridge of memory and diary. 

 
A bountiful harvest of rainwater cuts down water bill; 

it is environment-friendly and a source of enjoyment.  

        
A garden pond adds aesthetic beauty to the place, adds coolness and tranquility, cum a gentle sound of a fountain and running stream. Garden Pond at home in Lagro, QC. 

 3. "Nature, Nature on the Wall, A Beautiful Life to Recall.”

In loving memory of the late Venie V Rotor, ofs, author's sister

   “Humans love the art of make-believe,

Scenic Nature painted on the wall,

    Once empty and forgotten now alive,

  Bringing in friends to the call.” - avr

       

Sor Venie V Rotor and Ms Helen I Nolasco (in red) pose before a mural 

painted by the author. Sor Venie was the author's sister, the eldest of 

three  siblings of the late Matias Rotor and Enriqueta Valdez..

“Sitting on the rock, reaching for the sky,

All day if you wish with no one asking why.”

   

     

“Grace is something in the spirit to share,

That grows the more we love and care.”

     

Sor Veny left, leads house guest on a short walk at the botanical garden.

      "What makes a house green

other than the color green;

but a verdant garden scene

   happy and healthy to live in."

     

Stairway connects art gallery and library.

"Stairway connects

the past and the present,

man and his Creator,

events current and future,

known and unknown

now and hereafter."

     

Sor Veny Rotor (right) explained to house guest some modern 

paintings at the gallery, among them are her works.

Modern art:

Impressionism to Surrealism,

Dali, Matisse, Picasso to blame;

Avant-garde and graffiti, the same;

Please roll back to Realism.

Sor Venie V Rotor and Ms Helen I Nolasco (in red), house guest 2020

Living with Nature Center Rotor Residence

San Vicente Ilocos Sur ~

4. Apo Resurreccion at Home 

“Gaze at life in Me the second time”

Prayer is a universal element of Human Nature. It comes in many ways irrespective of creed and culture. It is ingrained in the rationality of the human being, emanating from a deep source which we cannot fully grasp. It is by believing in something beyond our comprehension that undermines our ignorance, arguably but true, as a unifying factor of humanity.

     

Sor Venie (foreground) led a short prayer before the 

Resurrection at her family's residence,

                             Message of the Resurrection

      "Apo Resureccion

How many times do we die and live again?

When we fall down and rise,

we fail and succeed,

when we are blind and see,

deaf and hear,

sin and atone,

hate and love,

love and care,

ad infinitum."

"Touch Me now that I am risen,

with your mind, heart and soul,

for you have chosen the path

of life with Heaven your goal."- avr

Manang Venie (center) leads prayer

"Redeemer of our postmodern world,

      we come to You, our Recourse

  to find true peace and accord

      on life’s rugged course."- avr

“The resurrection gives my life meaning and direction and the opportunity to start over no matter what my circumstances.” - Robert Flatt.

“The great gift of Easter is hope - Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God, in his ultimate triumph, and in his goodness and love, which nothing can shake.” - Basil C. Hume

Author's Note: Apo Resurreccion (Ilk) is a wooden icon of the resurrected Christ which has withstood the ravages of typhoons, earthquakes and the atrocities of the Second World War at the author's family residence.  Prayers are offered by quests who visit the place, which is gradually being developed into a Living with Nature Center cum Botanical Garden, in San Vicente Ilocos Sur.   

5. Anatomy of a Dream about Our Departed Loved Ones

Dr Abe V Rotor

It is remiss and folly of not showing true feelings to those we love, living or dead, all because “I am always busy”, and because there will be someday to make up for it. There are always reasons or alibis for failing to offer them prayers, to visit their graves, or just to make those who too, are close to them happy. Oh, there are many, many ways. 

This is a true story.

I went to bed very tired. For the whole day before my birthday I put on extra effort to finalize the manuscript of my forthcoming book which I was going to submit the following Monday. The title is Light from the Old Arch, a compilation of essays I wrote through the years.

Dad and my sister Venie or her renewal of her vow as Franciscan sister (Ordo Franciscanus Saecularis or OFS )

It was just past 10 in the evening and Cecille, my wife, who had gone to bed ahead of me stirred. “I’ll just check what we will have for breakfast. I’ll be back,” she said as I stretched my aching back and tired brain and apparently fell asleep.

Soon I found myself in complete darkness. I could not trace my way to switch on the lights and after several attempts locating it on the wall and under curtain, an inexplicable fear crept, a fear I had never experienced before. I was in a strange domain yet it had the features of my home. There was total darkness, total silence.

Dad died in 1981 at the age of 78. He died here in our residence at Lagro after battling with the complications of diabetes. We buried him at Himlayang Pilipino. Our oldest son, Pao who died at three, soon joined him in the same grave two years after.

Dad was deeply affected by my Mama’s death during the Second World War. My sister Veny was four then, and my brother Eugene was three. Dad suffered much - emotionally and physically - even after the four years of Japanese occupation. The war left our family and the country in ruins.

We continued to live in San Vicente which is adjacent to Vigan, the capital of Ilocos Sur. Dad confessed when we were already big that he feared so much we would not make it through in life. I know how extremely difficult it was even if dad owned farmlands and a neo-colonial house which my grandparents built in 1900. The three of us children knew little of the joys of childhood. My only uncle, Uncle Leo left dad to raised his own family in Pangasinan. He seldom visited us and spent time in our big house where he, like my dad, and their four siblings were born. Uncle Leo was the eldest and dad was the youngest. The rest of their siblings died at a very early age of smallpox which killed many people in Ilocos.

                           

                             Center: Basang, my auntie-yaya for life; right, my sister, Venie.    

 

The ancestral home is endangered.  But the instinct of family members to return home remains strong.  Many come back as balikbayan, others spend their last years and die in their hometown.  I was born here, and grew up, in his old house, which has been lately renovated - now home of my children and grandchildren. For many years in my absence, Manang Venie maintained it as truly "a home, sweet home". 

Basang my auntie and yaya took care of me from the time my mother died. I was less than two years old then. She never left us even when I came to Manila for my studies. She died three years after dad had gone. Manang Venie called me to come home when Basang died. We buried her in the town cemetery close to our departed relatives. Just before she died she gave me an antique narra aparador which I now use in keeping my personal things. In our dialect, she said, “This is the only thing I can give you.”

“You have given me everything,” I said.

Going back to the incident of October 21, I called dad three times, then called Basang once. It was a call apparently in fear. I felt helpless and lost. I froze. I could not move. I could not shout. And when I knew no help would come, I struggled. I succeeded in moving my fingers, my toes, until I was free.

Cecille had returned to our bedroom. “Why, you are pale and perspiring? What happened?" she asked, perplexed. She fetched me a glass of water.

“Was I shouting?” I asked automatically. “No,” she said calmly.

“I was dreaming,” I said and told her the whole story.
 

Anatomy of a Dream

Dreams are visions of the unconscious part of our brain. That is why they occur in our sleep, when we are not aware of things the way we perceive them with our senses. Dreams are not fashioned by rational thoughts and actions, and therefore we have no power to decide and to act according to that decision. We are entirely under the control of our unconscious mind.

“Even when we are deeply asleep the psyche is still actively producing dreams,” says Carl Jung. “We may not always be aware of these activities, any more than we are aware of our physiological activities, but this does not mean they are not taking place.”

According to Jung we remember only a few of our dreams, yet recent evidences suggest that we dream continuously throughout the night. There in our unconscious mind our psyche is very much alive, performing psychological work such as perceiving, remembering, thinking, feeling, wishing, willing, attending and striving – just as breathing, digesting and perspiring are physiological activities.

But can we choose psychic values? According to Jung, when a high value is placed upon an idea or feeling it means that this idea or feeling exerts considerable force in influencing and directing one’s behavior. A person may place a high value on beauty. Another on power. Or knowledge. On the other hand, there are those who place a high value on wealth, even on sex and vices. These create the themes of our dreams.

This is the realm of our unconscious mind. This is where Carl Jung parted way from his friend Sigmund Freud’s as he blazed the trail of the psychology of the unconscious, which led to applied psychology - psychiatry. We are governed not only by our conscious mind. We are actually governed in a much deeper and wider sense than we ever think. As we feed the unconscious with conscious thoughts and experiences, so the unconscious feeds the conscious mind. And this cycle goes on throughout everyone’s life, starting in the womb.

Even when we were children, the mind did not lose the information it received. They were deposited. First in the conscious, then deposited in the unconscious part of our brain, which are saved like in the computer. Now, the information is ready at hand to be retrieved. Touch the key and the info comes out on the screen – the screen of our consciousness.

How will this affect our present mind now that we are older? Jung said that the previous information serves as archetype. To better understand how this archetype works in relation to what we think at present, here is an example.

Suppose here is a person who happened to be a witness of a murder with his own eyes when he was still a small child. When he sees a suspicious person, the image of the murderer he saw many years ago flashes. It is the archetype coming alive.

Or take another example. A kindly gentleman comes and asks for a favor. We size him up in relation to people who have the characteristics this man possesses. If our experiences are agreeable, it is likely that we going to entertain this person.

The images of people, places and events are fashioned in many ways by archetypes. Unlike the computer, the mind spontaneously brings out the archetype that the brain appropriately needs at that moment. This is the basis of many of our decisions – and prejudices.

Through dreams the loaded unconscious finds relief. Information flows out in the form of dreams. Dreams may be happy or sad, fearful or pleasant. Or at intervals of moods and settings and characters, as if information keeps on flowing out. Nature has given us a safety valve to maintain our rationality and to release us from the prison walls of memory. Thus the other safety valve is forgetfulness.

Psychiatry is based on this principle. Lying on a couch the patient unloads his burden, fears, and uncertainties. He releases the pressure. Through this process he reaches a state of catharsis. He is relieved. He can now sleep. He can now work again.

People who cannot attain catharsis may suffer of psychiatric problems and may resort to drugs. Do you often wonder why people resort to drugs? Why there are more and more people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol?

Why, many people try to “escape” reality?

October 21 is a memorable day for me. By reading this story one is led to think that something supernatural controlled the event and situation. I told Cecille, “Dad and Basang came.”

“Let’s pray for them,” she answered and made the sign of the cross.

I know they did not come; I went to them. It was a special day, my special day.

I realized my fault which lays not so much in not remembering them often, but I have ceased to see them as the models that shaped my life. That was too long ago. I no longer see the lessons I learned from them that are still relevant to my present life. I do not call them anymore in the midst of my problems. I have grown up. I do not seek their intercession and guidance anymore.

It is remiss and folly of not showing true feelings to those we love, living or dead, all because “I am always busy”, and because there will be someday to make up for it. There are always reasons or alibis for failing to offer them prayers, to visit their graves, or just to make those who too, are close to them happy. Oh, there are many, many ways. 

Time has changed, and change has polarized our worlds. So with values of old and of the present world. The generation gap syndrome is creeping fast, more so with my own children who too, will have a world of their own in the near future. 

There in the dark I called Dad and Basang, their names clear and loud, but my voice just faded without answer, not even its own echo. It was eerie and mysterious. The unconscious was swelling and it found an exit in the dark, psychic energy released in dream. And there as I called them, I realized I was the one who is lost 

    – and found myself again.

6. Pilgrimage to the Holy Land

Pilgrimage to the Holy Land is her greatest dream-come-true. 

I treasure this souvenir cap from Jordan, my sister gave me.  

Jordan is the third country she visited in a group itinerary.

 

Sister Venie (left) poses before Sea of Galilee in Israel, and the Giza 

Pyramid of Egypt, with Leo Carlo and Lorraine in a group tour.   

Christianity and Islam - two great religions of the world - 

are one in these photos.

   

                  7. A Green World of Nature in Pastel  

                      Pastel Drawings of Sis Venie V Rotor

“Away, away, from men and towns,

To the wild wood and the downs, —

To the silent wilderness,

Where the soul need not repress its music.”

—Percy Bysshe Shelley

A basketful of oranges

"Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand."

 - Saint Mother Teresa

Flow gently under the bridge

“Love is the bridge that joins all the worlds together.” – Frederick Lenz

Green turtles 

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time." - John Lubbock ~

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United Nations International Women's Day (IWD) March 8, 2026   Veneranda Valdez Rotor, OFS

Religious Beyond the Walls of Convent

Original Title: Keeper of Our Ancestral Home

Sister Venie Brings in the Lighter Side of Life

Be like the windmill and be free of worries and cares in life, even only 

for a moment.  Bangui, Ilocos Norte 

Sister Veneranda Valdez Rotor was the eldest of three siblings of the late Matias Rotor and Enriqueta Valdez. She is remembered for her contributions to the preservation of their ancestral home in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur, and her role as a keeper of the family's heritage. Her works and contributions have been recognized in various contexts, highlighting her significance in the community and her dedication to preserving the natural environment and cultural traditions. Internet

* International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated annually on March 8 to honor women's achievements and advocate for gender equality worldwide. International Women's Day has been observed for over a century, originating from early 20th-century labor movements in Europe and North America.