A Touch of Healing (Dedicated to His Holiness Pope Francis on his coming visit to the Philippines.)

Dedicated to His Holiness Pope Francis on his coming visit to the Philippines 


Dr Abe V Rotor

A Touch of Healing is based on the theme of my book, Light from the Old Arch, which is logotherapy, a Greek word that means healing through meaning. It was Victor Frankl, a Jewish psychotherapist-philosopher who popularized this approach in keeping man’s resolve in facing the harsh realities of life, and in attaining peace of mind. It is in this state that he “discovers himself” and becomes more “sensitive for the other person.” A Touch of Healing is therefore, not only for the reader but also those whose lives he touches - in the workplace, in the community and at home.

1. Truth we seek, its bulk is under;

Iceberg its tip isn’t the danger;

Mum are we, inside is anger;

Silence sets us all asunder.

2. Feelings we may fall short;

Repressed and the water burst,

Rising into waves and froth,

Unless our anger dies first.

3. Denial to anger is just the beginning,

If anger is provoked and prolonged;

Into depression lost from bargaining -

Not enough, acceptance the saddest song.

4. The arrow and the bow,

True machine before the plow;

A hunter’s life he’d ceased

To found the land of peace.

5. To change our ways, hold your peace;

In his dungeon Gandhi prayed at ease;

Bowed on a loom he wove the cloth,

Cloth for the naked, the flag, and both.

6. Kindness without honesty -

That’s sentimentality;

Honesty without kindness -

Simply that’s plain cruelty;

Peace the duo could harness

Brings light to humanity.

7. He marched with the flag behind him

The Drummer Boy to his master’s will;

The flag drops, yet drumming still,

Fell he, knowing only the battle hymn.

8. Heavenly fire the clay took form,

Lives his soul after his ash;

Tempered he survives the storm

Lost in Eden to live with us. 

9. Late we rise at the edge of decay,
To herald birth at life’s last bend;
“Death be not proud,” the sages say,
“It’s how we’ve lived that tells our end.

10. Melodies in the air, we capture
Melodies in the heart, we keep;
Unsung melodies in rapture,
Sought and failed, we weep. 

11. Ivy, ivy on the wall,
Creeping shy and small;
Spread your arms to hide
My dark and ugly side.

12. How can the sun reach the hadal depth,
Where the world is cold, where love is dearth?
Hasn’t someone a bit of sun long kept?
Come, come and save the hearth.

13. Impossible to the old,
Im-possible to the bold;
Retire for the night,
Re-tire for the might.

14. Truth hidden when not needed
May breed lies unheeded;
And wrong a mob embraces
Is like a basket full of roses.

15. Make believe growth and prosperity;
A vessel sounds louder when empty.

16. Only good wine grows mellow with age;
So does a good man grow into a sage.

17. Up in the sky a pattern most queer,
Stars tell of the destiny of men;
Wouldn't a genius from slumber stir,
Or a faithful pray beyond Amen?

18. A vessel holds water to the brim,
Unless it bears a crack at its rim;
As men wish power in their dream
Even if they have lost their steam.

19. But children are children,
Knowing not a mob or crowd;
Curiosity, danger and dream
Lie behind a thin shroud.

20. Beauty builds upon beauty,Ad infinitum to eternity. ~

Orchid of Five Wounds

Orchids, Paintings by Anna Rotor. Does the orchid of five wounds really exist?  Or is it only in the imagination?
Is there such an orchid?

"It comes from a plant, Inday, that grows in the deep woods. It is an orchid, and it has a very unusual name, Five Wounds, Orchid of Five Wounds. Quite unusual, isn't it? But not anymore than Baby's Breath or Angel's Tears. This one got its name because on the tip of each white petal is a spot of red or purple, like a drop of blood. There is a 

legend that when Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross, some drops of blood from his wounds fell on this plant. Hence the name. Someday I shall tell you more about the legend."

This is an excerpt from The Orchid of Five Wounds, a short story about a sixteen-year old girl suffering of inoperable blindness. The attending doctor was describing this very rare flower. Before the kind doctor described the flowers, the patient caressed the flowers separately, feeling the petals, bringing the bunch nearer her nose. "I have never seen it before, but I think it is beautiful. Ten flowers on one stalk, petals like pearls... the fragrance reminds me of orange blossoms, but it is not..."

This excerpt gives the reader an idea on how loving a doctor can be in treating a patient. It reveals the doctor's knowledge of psychology and botany, separate disciplines he managed to unite with healing. There is mystery about the specimen - does this orchid really exist?

No one knows exactly. But the doctor in this story is thought to be the author himself - Dr Arturo B Rotor- in whose honor a new orchid he discovered was named after him, Vanda merrilii rotorii as described by Dr Eduardo Quisumbing, the country's foremost botanist. There's one thing, writers usually lead their readers into the realm of a mysterious world where the essence of living is elevated to a higher plane that challenges the faculty and psyche.

Surely the Orchid of Five Wounds resides in that realm. ~

The Men Who Play God, by Dr Arturo B Rotor, 1866 Republic Heritage Awardee, contemporary of Jose Garcia Villa, Salvador Lopez and Manuela Arguilla. Published by Ateneo de Manila University)

Fine Art in Culinary Art - Aesthetics in Food (Article in progress)

Dr Abe V Rotor 


 
 
  
  
  
   
  

   

A Bamboo World

Dr Abe V Rotor

Bamboo grove becomes a children's playground.

Santo Domingo, Ilocos Sur

To see the world in a grove of bamboo

is seeing our ancestors in their time,
in the rustic world of Amorsolo
far, far away from the city scene,
hidden by a curtain of green .

It’s an arena of wit and skill and joy,
in laughter that fills the pure air
echoed by the swaying bamboo
that played with children in scary creak
the original game of hide-and-seek.

Here nobody wins or loses in the game
because there are no walls, no fences,
and there is no time to gain or to lose;
it’s a world to men children shall grow,
simple and true like the bamboo. ~

Decorative baskets from leaflets

Dr Abe V Rotor

Don't refuse those colorful leaflets at the mall.  Gather them instead.  Have a second round.  Tell the kind fellow you need more for your friends.  And  neighbors.  Put a smile to show your (good) intentions.

Now you have a bagful of colorful leaflets - housing, food, appliance, fashion, party, promo of many kinds.  Get them all.  The giver will be just too happy.  You are his potential customer.

Of course you are.  Who knows someday you will patronize any of those advertised products and services?  Or someone in the family or in the office will be curious about it. 

You see, you are a great help in getting rid of litters.  You make something useful before it is thrown into the garbage.  You turn garbage to beauty.  You give life to a short-lived leaflet. That’s more than recycling.  You make a table alive, a corner filled, a shelf attractive. You make something functional for pencils, laces, ribbons, hankies, in fact you can use it as flower base other than just a receptacle. 

You make children curious.  They want to know how you do it?  You are now a mentor, a teacher.  You are now an environmentalist.  An artist, not only for art sake, but to make this world a better place to live in. ~

Animals can tell the coming of a natural calamity

Dr Abe V Rotor

1.When earthworms crawl out of their holes, a flood is coming.
This subterranean annelid has built-in sensors, a biblical Noah’s sense of a coming flood, so to speak. Its small brain is connected to clusters of nerve cells, called ganglia, running down the whole body length. These in turn are connected to numerous hair-like protrusions on the cuticle, which serve as receptor. When rain saturates the soil, ground water rises and before it reaches their burrows, they crawl out to higher grounds where they seek refuge until the flood or the rainy season is over. The more earthworms abandoning their burrows, the more we should take precaution.

Giant earthworm, UST campus. Photo taken
before Typhoon Lupit, October 17, 2009.
The poor creature was crossing a concrete
pavement on its way to higher ground. I
helped it find a safe home.

 2. Animals become uneasy before an earthquake occurs.

It is because they are sensitive to the vibrations preceding an earthquake. They perceive the small numerous crackling of the earth before the final break (tectonic), which is the earthquake. As a means of self-preservation they try to escape from stables and pens, seek shelter, run to higher grounds, or simply escape to areas far from the impending earthquake. Snakes come out of their abode, reptiles move away from the water, horses neigh and kick around, elephants seem to defy the command of their masters (like in the case of the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka). We humans can only detect such minute movements on our inventions such as the Richter Scale.

3.Dogs howl in the night at unseen spirits.
Dogs have keen sense of seeing, smelling and hearing, many times more sensitive than ours. Many animals such as members of the cat family - lions, tigers, and the domesticated cat – are equally, if not more sensitive, in the dark. They also have infrared vision that enhances their predatory habits. The limitation of our senses is the mother of many of our beliefs or superstitions.

4. Raining while the sun is out breeds insects.
Now and then we experience simultaneous rain and sunshine, and may find ourselves walking under an arch of rainbow, a romantic scene reminiscent of the movie and song, Singing in the Rain.  Old folks would rather grim with a kind of sadness on their faces, for they believe that such condition breeds caterpillars and other vermin that destroy their crops.

What could be the explanation to this belief? Thunderstorm is likely the kind of rain old folks are referring to. Warmth plus moisture is vital to egg incubation, and activation of aestivating insects, fungi, bacteria and the like. In a few days, they come out in search of food and hosts. Armyworms and cutworms (Spodoptera and Prodina), named after their huge numbers and voracious eating habit, are among these uninvited guests

5. When house lizards (butiki) are noisy, there is a guest coming.
My father used to tell me when I was a child, that if house lizards make loud and crispy calls, it’s likely that a visitor is coming.

How do lizards know? Some people attribute this to the house lizard’s habit of “kissing” the ground at dusk. But this has nothing to do with predicting a guest’s arrival. But we know that when a person is anticipating a guest he is extraordinarily keen, and thus become aware of anything happening in his surroundings – including the mating calls of lizards.

House lizards take a drink on the ground and return to their dwellings on top of trees, on ceilings and roofs where water is scarce. By the way lizards are common where there is a lot of insects they can feed on, such as areas around fluorescent lamps and street lights.

6. When jellyfish come to the surface of the sea there is an earthquake or tsunami coming. It is when the epicenter of an earthquake occurs under the sea that tsunami may follow. Marine animals as well as land animals can detect minute tremors preceding an earthquake. Because of this they seek for safe areas usually moving upward shallower waters. (NOTE: Such vibrations are generally imperceptible to humans. They are monitored by his invention, the Seismograph, instead.)

7. When cockroaches are flying about, there are plenty of fish to catch. This is not limited to cockroaches. Other insects do swarm at certain stages or seasons of the year. For example, termites swarm at the onset of the heavy rains (monsoon or habagat); honeybees swarm when the queen bee dies, or when a new queen is produced from an old hive. Gnats or gamu-gamu swarm when their population shoot up due to freedom from predators. Locusts coalesce and migrate if driven by drought that destroys their source of food. Fish are abundant when there are plenty of insects since insects constitute their main food.

8. Numerous leafhoppers (Nepothettix spp., Order Homoptera) smashed on the windshield while driving at night on the highway, means there is population buildup of this pest in the area. Leafhoppers attack rice and other crops in their growing and early maturing periods.

Unusual behavior of a school of fish is a sign of a coming earthquake. Bangkok, Thailand  


9· Ants move into the house for shelter of a coming strong rain or a typhoon. They even carry with them their young and eggs. Oftentimes some of the members of the colony bear wings. These are soldiers and workers ants which have grown wings in preparation for swarming.

10. A tree surrounded by fireflies during the night brings good luck.
Fireflies are biological indicators of a pristine environment and good weather. Letizia Constantino once wrote in Issues without Tears, a moving article –You don’t see fireflies anymore. It is reminiscent of Rachel Carson’s winning novel, Silent Spring, a story when the birds did not return one spring. It is all about man’s growing indifference in protecting the environment from pollution and many other abuses. ~