Prayer of Teachers as Good Shepherds (In observance of Teachers' Day celebration, Philippines) October 5, 2019

Prayer of Teachers as Good Shepherds (In observance of Teachers' Day celebration, Philippines)  October 5, 2019

Teach us then to become good teachers and educators in the way of the Good Shepherd. 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Christ  as the Greatest Teacher and the Good Shepherd

Father Almighty, teach us to become good teachers in the way of the Good Shepherd.

Father Almighty, source of light, of life and everything in this world, as we observe this special day, we beg you to be with us, to be our “unseen Guest.” Light our way; touch our heart as we touch the hearts of others, especially the young ones, the youth, whom You have placed under our care. Bless us with joy and enthusiasm, with zeal and obedience, with understanding and compassion as we take their hands and walk with them to make this world a better place to live in.

Teach us then to become good teachers and educators in the way of the Good Shepherd.
- Make us unifying element that we may live peacefully in one community;
- Make us catalysts of change, and an anchor of undefined destiny as well;
- Make us conveyors of knowledge, skill and values rolled into a holistic well-being;
- Make us healers by bringing enlightenment to human misery;
- Make us agents of rational thoughts and decisions;
- Make us sentries that we may fend off evil intentions that undermine true education;
- Make us custodians of tradition amid modernism;
- Make us guardians in the way of the Parable of the Sower, and the Prodigal Son;
- Make us the Good Samaritan, as well.

You have chosen us teachers to be the intellect and heart of the academe - because You want us to examine education in the way we examine our calling.
- to reach out for one another;
- to listen;
- to care;
- to comfort;
- to encourage one another when we fail;
- to pray for one another when we falter;
- to be strong together;
- to share the joy of teaching; and
- to convey the Sermon on the Mount

With you, Father Almighty, we can do many things; without you, we can do nothing. We ask You these through your Son Jesus Christ, who reigns forever and ever. 
Amen ~

Felled Sacred Tree - Balete

Felled Sacred Tree - Balete

"Don't be afraid of the legendary kapre, in fact it is a friend in protecting Nature from the destructive hands of man." avr 

 Dr Abe V Rotor 

Strangler's Fig or Balete (Ficus benjamina) Family Moraceae*, estimated to be a century old, met its final end because it became an "obstruction" to development. And as it grew into a massive spreading queer looking tree with numerous prop roots it became alienated to residents, particularly superstitious people who believe the tree to be the home of the kapre, a hairy monster in Philippine folk literature. It had long been standing in the area which was originally part of the La Mesa Watershed which supplies water to Metro Manila until it was converted into the present Lagro subdivision.

*Ficus benjamina, commonly known as weeping fig, benjamin fig or ficus tree is native to Asia and Australia. It is the official tree of Bangkok. It is also popularly known as Banyan. It is considered sacred in India, Cambodia, Thailand and other countries. Temples "strangled" by the massive roots of banyan have been preserved for worship and tourism. The tree is abode to different organisms. Its small fruit are favored by some birds, such as the fruit doves and imperial pigeons. The tree reaches 30 m (98 ft) tall under natural conditions, with gracefully drooping branchlets and glossy leaves 6–13 cm (2–5 in), Its crown may cover a diameter of 10 meters. Prop roots grow on the spreading branches appearing like stilts and legs. In time the tree colonizes the surrounding area and even extends farther where condition are favorable. . True enough, the banyan is dubbed the "walking tree", its compounded trunk measuring several meters in diameter.

 

Juvenille balete wraps an acacia tree with its interlacing prop roots, hence the name strangler's fig. (UST Manila),  Another balete rises to the crown of its host tree, a lauan. (UPLB Mt Makiling).  Photos by the author.

 

Left: Several balete trees such as this, estimated to be more than 100 years old, are safely protected at the spacious grounds of the Sacred Heart Novitiate, a walking distance from the felled balete tree in Lagro. Events are often held under the massive umbrella of these trees. Ghosts are often "seen" such as these impressions.  Right: Ancient temple entombed by banyan is revered sacred in Cambodia as it was centuries before.  Today It is a tourist attraction. 

Author poses before a stone image of Buddha popping out of the menacing roots of  balete (Ficus benamina). Ayutthaya, Thailand  2010

  

In many parts of  Thailand, India and Cambodia temples for both the spirit and the living are built or preserved on old banyan trees 

Banyan trees guard a tomb; foot bridges are built from extended prop roots of banyan. 

Philippines’ oldest tree.

Apart from its age, the balete tree is huge and needs at least 42 people to fully encircle its trunk.

Canlaon’s balete tree stands in the middle of rice and coffee plantations in Oisca Farm in Lumapao. As with trees of this species, it is regarded with some awe, fascination, and superstition.

The tree has a cavity in its middle and is home to lizards, bats, and insects. At night, hundreds of fireflies illuminate the huge tree. Some local folks believe that the balete tree is a gathering spot for fairies and supernatural folk. ~

Return of the Tree Frog

 In high school literature class I compared this cadaverous and clumsy creature to Ichabod Crane as described by its creator, the father of short story in America - Washington Irving!
Dr Abe V Rotor

Common Tree Frog (Polypedates leucomystar)

The Common Tree Frog (Polypedates leucomystar) has an arboreal habit, but now and then it comes down to feed on insects, and even visit nearby homes. This is how I encountered this living specimen one hot summer afternoon in a most unlikely place - the bathroom. As I was about to cool off, I found company with this unexpected creature perched on the shower head apparently enjoying itself.

The last time I remember seeing a tree frog was when I was a farmhand. In Ilocos we called it tukak uleg or snake frog, because it is a favorite prey of snakes, and its distress cry sends instinctive warning to anyone who is in the vicinity. Sometimes it is called banana frog because it resides at the axils of leaf stalks where water from rain and dewdrops accumulates and make a series of miniature ponds. It is not unusual to find a frothy egg mass hanging up in a banana tree. Here the eggs hatch into tadpoles, and being larvivorous, feed on mosquito wrigglers and plankton organisms until the become frogs. Here they subsist on insect pest and worm. It is a classical example of biological control which benefits farmers and residents in the area.

Chemical pesticides were unknown to us and the farmers then. Many organisms disappeared since modern agriculture was introduced in the sixties, among them scores of species, including this curious looking tree frog. Once I compared this cadaverous and clumsy creature to Ichabod Crane as described by its creator, the father of short story in America - Washington Irving!

"If your vocabulary is limited, " I overhead my dad saying, "use analogy." So I tried. And Mrs Leonor Itchon, my literature teacher in high school nodded wryly after my recitation amidst subdued giggling among my classmates. Well, I may not have received a good grade, but the tree frog helped me become a biologist.

The bathroom encounter with my long lost acquaintance - the tree frog - that hot afternoon won't make a movie, but at least my son, Marlo and I, were able to document a biological renaissance. I had just made a review of Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls which at the end of the novel warns us, "the bell tolls for no one; it tolls for thee."

Maybe not, as long as creatures we thought to have been lost forever are coming back alive. Hail to the tree frog - new-found long-lost friend of man.~

Re-creating Heaven-on-Earth on a Wall

Trees for Peace

Re-creating Heaven-on-Earth

Dr Abe V Rotor

Author and artist poses with friends before a huge wall mural complex

he painted for St Paul University QC in 2000

Blood stain on my shirt, my friends were concerned;

     “Go to the clinic,” they urged, pleaded;

My wound was healing then, its stitches stretched

     to the limit. “I’ll be OK, “I said.

Frantic, catching up in the final hour it seemed

     to the last breathe - the ultimate test;

What more in life can you do before its flame

      goes out?  I didn’t care at all to rest.

I saw dark clouds like curtain parting into view

     a landscape so beautiful, so pristine;

I wondered where heaven is - isn’t it on earth?

     this scene in my whole life I hadn’t seen.

Only when the inner you sees beyond the wall;

     “What’s essential is invisible to the eye,”

Exupery’ wrote in The Little Prince, the pilot

      lost in the desert and about to die.

Frankl’s Search for Meaning, Handel’s Hallelujah,

     Hugo’s novels, Rizal’s Last Farewell  

Behind their footsteps least trodden I followed,   

     a heaven-on-earth I’m humbled to tell. ~   

Ode to the Stinkhorn Mushroom

Ode to the Mushroom

You link three worlds - yesterday

with tomorrow, and briefly today...

Dr Abe V Rotor

Stinkhorn mushroom (Phallus impudicus), Family Phallales

Youth and death, pleasure and sorrow,

One comes to this world after you;

Who and when we will never know,

In your domain where you grow.

You cover all, like grass in Auschwitz,

In fuzzy web, transforming into rich

Mass when the sky rolls in dreadful pitch,

Waking Lazarus as Zeus speaks -

In another body, time and space,

Where new life begins in a new place;

You are the link, and Nature the pace,

Of all life, ordered in seeming maze.

You link three worlds - yesterday

With tomorrow, and briefly today,

In our work, sleep - even as we play -

The world wakes up to a new day.~

Auricularia (tainga ng daga)

Dung mushroom
Shelf mushroom, log mushroom

Lesson former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid.738 DZRB AM Band, 

Leafless Tree by the Window

 Leafless Tree by the Window

"I am just a passing wind and soon I'll be gone.

     I knock again - only silence returns my call." avr

Dr Abe V Rotor

.

Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches QC

 I am a passing wind, I knock on the window pane,

     The door is closed, the wall in deathly pallor;
The roof of rusting crimson, eaten by sun and rain.
     I knock again - only silence returns my call.

I must have missed summer when everything here -
     A single tree, a patch of grass - is a garden;
Long was my way fighting the dark heavy sky,
     And autumn lulling all into deep slumber.

Fall is beautiful, but where are the good poets now?
     Sleep and the flowers will come one by one;
But I am just a passing wind and soon I'll be gone.
     I knock again - only silence returns my call. ~                            

GHOSTS! If you see these flimsy figures, you are gifted.

GHOSTS! If you see these flimsy figures, you are gifted.

"Believe your eyes though your vision is blurred,

spirits come to give comfort, as they wish comfort;

lucky you are to be their chosen one."

Photo and Verse by Dr Abe V Rotor

Sacred Heart Novitiate, Quezon City

Believe your eyes though your vision is blurred,

when all have gone home and you are alone,

spirits come to give comfort, as they wish comfort;

lucky you are to be their chosen one,

and if you aren't afraid they stay around, they dance,

they sing silent songs, they talk inaudibly,

of the secret of beyond, of ingenuity;

they take you to another world

where cares and worries are a thing of the past,

though present to us, the living, the throng;

and if you could enter into their world - the world 

of Dante and Jonathan Swift - and return -

you are gifted, the genius of a doubting race.    

Do you believe in divination?

Do you believe in divination?  
Divination may be a special gift of naturalism. 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Take the case of water diviner (not the movie) – one who can detect the source of ground water by mere perception.

A kindly old man from Baclaran, a foreigner who has been in the country for years, is known for his special gift as a “water diviner”. He was hired to locate a reliable source of water for a piggery project in Macabebe, Pampanga.  Previous to this there was a newly constructed well which ran dry. This is the story related to me by the project manager. 

Divination in the ancient world

First he prayed, then looked from a perfect Y-shape branch of guava and cut it like a big frame of a slingshot (tirador).  Holding the smaller ends in each hand, and pointing the common end to the ground, he scoured the whole area. Then on a spot he stood, the branch vibrating in his hands.  “Dig here,” he said. True, he found an underground stream, which to this day, twenty years after, the well continues to pour out hundreds of gallons of water everyday.  

Can the water diviner detect the vibration of the flow of an underground vein of water (aquifer)?  If so, he must have that special gift of naturalism. 

The Water Diviner movie

Divination (from Latin divinare "to foresee, to be inspired by a god", related to divinus, divine) is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a querent should proceed by reading signs, events, or omens, or through alleged contact with a supernatural agency. Wikipedia