We are breathing bad air!

We are breathing bad air!
Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday

 Smoke belching vehicles - unstoppable

 Dumpsites - breeding place of disease, poisonous and obnoxious gases

Bad air days (BAD)

Bad air accumulates and moves, such as the case over Hong Kong. Bad air moves in two directions - to Bombay, India; and to neighboring Guangdong where pollution meets and mixes over the Pearl River and forms a shroud as it meets the sea. Similar cases occur over Beijing, Tokyo and San Francisco. The stale air hangs as an inversion layer practically choking the city.

Rapid economic growth has led to record levels of pollution, producing filthy air rising and spreading over highly industrial centers and densely populated cities. Here power plants, factories and vehicles release pollutants into the air, and as the sun heats up the ground, the polluted air rises. But polluted air cools quickly over water and sinks to the surface and disperses. Without strong wind to clear it away, the pollution mix can build up over time, leading to BAD (bad air days).

What is in the polluted air?

Sulfur Dioxide is produced by coal-burning power plants and heavy industry. Effects: reduces lung function, exacerbates wheezing and shortness of breath. Builds acid rain with other gases.

Nitrogen Dioxide comes from emissions of vehicles and power plants. Effects: helps form smug, exacerbates asthma and increases chances of respiratory infections.

Respirable suspended particulates. These tiny particles are created chiefly by diesel exhaust and coal-burning power plants. Effects: can penetrate deep into lungs and aggravate serious respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

Ozone is formed by the reaction in sunlight of volatile organic compounds and CFCs that primarily come from cars, and household byproducts. Effects: causes chest pain and coughing, aggravates asthma.

Hydrogen sulfide, ammonia gas, elevated CO2 from piggeries and ranches, swamps and polluted rivers and lakes. Algal bloom contributes significant amounts of these gases.

Suspended dusts as what happens during sandstorms and volcanic eruptions, such as what happened during the Pinatubo eruption, and recently, in Iceland and Brazil. Remember the Dust Bowl of the Dakotas in the thirties when the air became was loaded with dusts which lasted for weeks.

Dioxin, the most poisonous substance ever formulated by man is in the air since plastic was discovered. Pastics are the most popular material used in the household, industry and agriculture. Dioxin is produced by burning plastics. With increasing use of pesticides, the air is getting thicker with chlorinated hydrocarbons, organophosphates, and other harmful residues.

Radiation is the result of fallout from nuclear accidents like what happened in Fukushima, Japan, in March this year, and in Chernobyll in Kiev twenty years ago, not to mention the Three-Mile nuclear incident in the US in the eighties.

Pathogens - Spores of disease-causing organisms that infect not only humans but animals and plants as well, ride on air current, and on particulates suspended in air. Thus the hypothesis that epidemic diseases move on air has strong scientific evidences.

Are we safe inside our schools and houses?

Bad air builds up surepticiously in airconditioned halls and rooms. Don't be deceived by the comfort of coolness lulling you to sleep. Defective and leaking aircon units virtually make the room a gas chamber. There are cases of death due to poisonous gases from leaking aircon.

Defective exhaust or overload results in buildup of Carbon Dioxide and its more poisonous cousin, Carbon Monoxide (CO).

When students become inattentive and drowsy, yawning, complaining of headache, nausea, and the like, suspect the air conditoning unit as the culprit - and the classroom heavy with bad air.
As a teacher, when confronted with this situation, immediately institute these measures.

• Give the class a break. A recess outside the classroom is preferred.
• Open all windows and doors
• Check the aircon, the exhaust fan with the aircon technician
• Inform management.
• Give sufficient break during brownout

Bad air inside rural Asian homes kills hundreds of thousands a year. The most poisonous atmosphere in the Asian region is found not only in rapidly modernizing cities like New Delhi or Beijing but inside the kitchens. Millions of families heat their abodes and cook in open fires that belch CO and other noxious fumes at levels up to 5000 times the international safety. Families and children spend hours each day in poorly ventilated homes and kitchens. Although this is as old as humankind, living in tight quarters and poverty have aggravated the situation.

Solution: improved stove, more efficient with least pollution. Improved stoves are subsidized by governments such as in China and India, which also back us the campaign by proper education, and strict pollution control laws.

And lastly, have trees and plants around the house, on backyards and sidewalks, on idle lots and parks to increase Oxygen level and cool the surroundings. But never keep plants inside your house, and never in your bedroom. At night plants give off CO2 as they, like other organisms, respire. In our knowledge of photosysthesis, the dark phase of this biological process takes place at night. ~

Rich Flora of Guimaras Island

Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday

Corazon de Maria (Caladium bicolor)

Fancy-leaved Caladium (Caladium humboltii)

 Euphorbia (Euphorbia splendens)

Red kalachuchi (Plumera rubra)

Pandakaking tsina (Ervatamia divaricata)

 Water plant (Philodendron hastatum)

 

 Fire tree (Delonix regia)

Mayana (Coleus blumei)

Daisy (Gerbera jamesonii)

Doña Trining (white) - Mussaenda philippica

Doña Aurora (Mussaenda philippica var aurorarae)

 Lantana (Lantana camara)

Tiger hemp (Sanziviera zeylanica)

Yellow  gummamela (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis)

Red gummamela (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis)

Gummamela (Hibiscus schizopetalus)

 

 Variegated gummamela (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis)

Lobsterclaw (Heliconia acuminata)

 
Anahaw (Livistonia acuminata)

 Powderpuff lily (Haemanthus multiflorus)

 

Beach hymenocallis (Hymenocallis litoralis) / Spider lily (Crinum asiaticum)

  Garden asparagus (Asparagus officinales)

Croton (Codiaeum variegatum)

 

Croton (Codiaeum variegatum)

Ripe fruits of pandakaki (Tabernamontana pandakaki)

Entangled liana forms a natural border and fence 

Our Promising Labrador-Siberian Dog

Our Labrador-Siberian Dog 
Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday

 

Chicklet is a cross of Labrador Retriever and Siberian Husky.  Carlo walks Chicklet regularly in the neighborhood.  

 A pet dog needs a spacious and well-ventilated, safe and secure pen.

To be the master of your dog; it must recognize you as head of the pack.  

If you receive a gift - a puppy half-Siberian, half-Labrador, what would you do?

You will like it, Papa, said Marlo my eldest boy who came for a visit, handing over the shy innocent baby canine. And who wasn't glad in the family?

I imagined, remembering some movies I saw, working dogs up in the Arctic, pulling sleds the way bullocks do in the tropics, or reindeer in the Lapland. Dogs retrieving ducks during hunting season. She will grow big and useful, Papa. Marlo assured me, now in my past seventies. Maybe I thought I would be needing a companion dog, not necessary a working dog; a watchdog at least.  

Just like Nikko, our Doberman for 15 years that died three years ago, Leo my youngest boy, was in approval. I'll take care of her, Papa. And took the shy puppy into his lap.  Let's think of a name. We looked for a name in the calendar.  St Bernard. No, that's another breed.  St. Gertrudes.  No, that's a breed of cattle. Let's just call her Chicklet.  Why not Pepsi, it's easier to pronounce and to call. 

Since then everyone called her Chicklet.  Quite often I mistakenly called her Pepsi, and she would likewise respond. Mackie, our baby grand daughter was simply amazed. Until it got vaccinated from rabies we kept Chicklet isolated. Her home? The pen of our late Nikko. Oversize for a puppy.

A month passed, she doubled in size. Three months.  She was as big as our Ten-Ten-Ten, an Askal dog that found refuge in our home on the tenth of October 2010.  Hence his name.

Perfect playmates.  Neither one wins nor loses. 

She's now on her fifth month.  She has grown big and strong.  I wonder what make a crossbreed special.  So I did not research.

The Labrador dog in Chicklet began to show. 

The Labrador Retriever, also known as The Labrador or Lab, is one of several kinds of retrievers, a type of gun dog, even-tempered and well-behaved around young children and the elderly. Labradors are athletic, playful, and the most popular breed of dog by registered ownership in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. 

A favorite assistance dog breed in these and other countries, Labradors are frequently trained to aid people who are blind and people with autism, act as therapy dogs, and perform screening and detection work for law enforcement and other official agencies. They are prized as sporting and waterfowl hunting dogs. England is the country of origin of the Labrador. (Wikipedia)

Every time  Leo Carlo (photos) would take Chicklet for a walk in the neighborhood, heads turned to inquire, others would guess - Siberian Husky.  Leo would just nod.  What is it in Chicklet that is Siberian?

j    

The Siberian Husky or "Sibirsky husky" (Russian) is a medium to large, dense-coat working dog breed that originated in north-eastern Siberia, recognizable by its thickly furred double coat, sickle tail, erect triangular ears, and distinctive markings.

Huskies are an active, energetic, and resilient breed whose ancestors came from the extremely cold and harsh environment of the Siberian Arctic. Siberian Huskies were bred by the Chukchiof Northeastern Asia to pull heavy loads on long distances through difficult conditions. The dogs were imported into Alaska and later spread into the United States and Canada as sled dogs and later as family pet and show dogs . 

Breeds descending from the Eskimo dog or Qimmiq were once found throughout the Northern Hemisphere from Siberia to Canada, Alaska, Greenland, Labrador, and Baffin Island. With the help of Siberian Huskies, entire tribes of people were able not only to survive, but to push forth into terra incognita. Admiral Robert Peary of the United States Navy was aided by this breed during his expeditions in search of the North Pole. (Wikipedia)

Chicklet by comparison with human longevity is one year old now.  She is learning obedience. By two (14 in humans) she will enter the age of puberty.  By three (21 years in humans) she will become assertive in the role taught her. She will prove her loyalty. This will make her a good guide dog. Caring and trusting, especially with kids.  We are seeing in her such tendency. 

Will she be a working dog?  Not really, not a sled dog. Retriever, perhaps.  She loves catching balls, as well as disarranging (retrieving) things playfully. She is going to develop right conduct. She would be accompanying us in our rounds, going to church, to market, or simply on a walk.    

Too early to say yes, to all these, and others as well, in certainty.  Already Chicklet is a dog-rooster in the morning; her barking wakes the neighborhood.  She likes to walk with Leo Carlo, first in the vicinity, now even outside the neighborhood. A breed for the cold region? Yes, she takes a bath by herself.  Just give her a basin of water. Does she howl like her forebears in the vast Arctic?  No but her barking sends other dogs howling. Does she play rough? Yes like English rugby, and Canadian Hockey. But it's all game.

One time my patience reached an end at Chicklet's insubordination.  She refused to stop barking. It disturbed our peace and sleep. No scolding would help. I didn't spare the rod. She yelped and surrendered in genuflection. The next time she got her punishment she laid prostrate, motionless, meek as lamb. 

I carried her to her pen. She looked at me in total submission. I am the leader of the pack. Imagination took me to the lands of the Labrador Retriever and the Siberia Husky. ~   

Palm Sunday - Nemesis of Palm Trees and Cycads

Palm Sunday - 

Nemesis of Palm Trees and Cycads 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday

Faithful of the Christendom wave young fronds of buri, a threatened species; and oliva or Cycad, a highly endangered species, in observance of Palm Sunday. 

  

More than ninety percent of the palaspas are made of the buds or immature leaves of palm trees principally buri, anahaw, and coconut. Coconut trees are purposely stripped for palaspas and their heart is made into fresh lumpia.  Otherwise the trees are left to die in the grove.  As a consequence the destructive rhinoceros beetles, and pathogenic fungi breed in them, and build populations that destroy many standing trees.   

Buri, on the other hand is already a threatened species in the Philippines and in most tropical countries. The leaves are woven into mats, bags and other handicrafts. It is the young tree that is harvested for palaspas, ending the tree's potential life span of fifty years. It is not easy to propagate buri because it bears nuts only once it its lifetime - just as it's going to die. 

Survivors of  Palm Sunday takes time to recover.  It takes months to normally recover, and if harvesting of nuts is every two months, the affected trees may yield only half as much.  But then Palm Sunday comes next year, and every year thereafter. Thus we wonder if ever the tree will live a productive life of twenty to thirty years. 

I have a coconut tree at home.  We have been harvesting buko nuts every two months since 1979 when we moved into the subdivision - that's a good thirty three years (plus 5 years earlier). On the average our harvest is twenty nuts per bunch or forty buko nuts per harvest - that's four hundred pesos at 10 pesos each, city price.  Gross value per year is P2,500, based on six harvests. All these come from a single coconut tree.  

Coconut farmers may be getting more, plus the value of midribs for walis tingting, leaves for sinambong basket, woven mat, activated carbon from the shell, coir for cordage, dusts for the garden, and of course, firewood.  We have not mentioned tuba, lambanog, suka, muscovado, pulitiput, as cottge industry products from coconut. Then the ecological importance as windbreak, and companion crop of orchard trees, and a variety of cash crops.  When planted all together we see a farm model envied the world over - storey cropping.  The model is easily a 3-storey cropping to 7-storeys, one for the Book of Guiness. 

It is irony when faith collides with reality, when the spirit and body are separated by blind devotion, when the future is made bleak by one celebration, when the faithful turns into a bandwagon when unity and cooperation is already established, when faith becomes a stumbling block to a better life. 

Oliva (Cycad) is a living fossil, older than the dinosaur; now it is in the list of threatened species, in other places, it is placed as endangered. Usually the whole crown is harvested for Palm Sunday's palaspas, causing the plant to starve and die. 
Lower photo shows symbionts (fern, moss, lichen orchid, including insects and fungi) that live on the trunk and peduncle of the cycad, thus forming a community we may call as localized ecosystem.  

On the other hand Palm Sunday is key to progress, to the preservation of nature, and healing of our planet. It can be made more more meaningful by planting palm trees instead.  There is good sign here.  In other countries there are churches where the people bring seedlings of palm trees, cycads, and other plant species as well. The seedlings are blessed the same way the palaspas is blessed.  There is one big difference, and this is the key.  The faithful bring back the blessed seedlings in be planted in their homes.  Others join community tree planting in plaza and parks, along roads and highways.  Others organize replanting of destroyed forests, and reclaiming wastelands. Because the seedlings are blessed there's a accompanying   responsibility and concern for their growth. Subsequent Palm Sunday celebrations in one particular feature, are held where Palm Sunday seedlings were previously planted.

The Lord will be very happy of this development.

For the last fifty years I have been campaigning in saving the palms and cycads on Palm Sunday,  starting as a student. Throughout my career as radio instructor, columnist of local magazines, and university professor, I have been consistent with it.  There are more and more people who agree with the idea and have joined the campaign. This is encouraging.  But it has not broken ground yet, as these photos here will bear me out.

Talking with the clergy, I asked apologetically, "Father, is it possible to have only the green and mature palm - not the bud leaves (white), blessed? And not the oliva, too?" The religious ambiance soon engulfed the air and the conversation led into the story of the passion of Christ. ~

Get the best from your favorite fish.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday [www.pbs.gov.ph]

Different fish species in the market. How many can your identify?

Bangus – Choose one with fat belly, one-kilo size is best. If the lower tail fin is shorter than the upper one, it is the famous Bonoan (Dagupan) bangus.

Tilapia – Get those with thick and supple body. Three pieces to a kilo is best.

Catfish (hito) – Always buy the fish live. Yellowish belly means it is fat.

Mudfish or snakehead (dalag) – Always buy it live. Yellow to bright orange belly means it is fat, and the female may be carrying eggs.

Carp – Sometimes called Imelda, the head is fat and fleshy. When buying the chopped fish, get the head and middle part.

Tahong (Green Mussel) -  Take heed of the Red Tide warning.  Don't take the risk of eating tahong, talaba, halaan and other marine shell fish when the seasonal Red Tide is declared in your area by the Department of Health, and the Department of Local Government. Red Tide poisoning is caused by microscopic dinoflagellates that bloom in the estuary and cove, especially during summer and start of the rainy season. Pry open and see if it is fatty. It must have a clean, fresh smell. Reject if it emits even the slightest foul or oil odor.

Oysters - Get freshly gathered oysters. Ask the vendor to pry open a sample to check if it is full and fatty. Use your olfactory sense.Reject if you sense foul odor. This is true with all shellfish including freshwater snail (kuhol and suso) and clam (kappo Ilk).

Crab (Alimango) – Female crabs even if they are more expensive make the best buy. They have more fat (aligi) especially during New Moon than the males. This is true with talangka or freshwater crabs, shrimps, lobsters and crayfish.

Prawn – Freshly caught prawns are translucent. Reject if the head or cephalothorax is discolored, all the more if it is severed, and unpleasant odor detected.

Marine fish – Dynamited fish invariably have eyes, abdomen, scale and flesh battered by the blast. Report to nearest authority the presence of such fish.

Anchovies – It has a very short shelf life, and must be preserved in ice. Many people eat it raw (kilawin) when newly caught, with ginger, onion, and tomato. The best recipes are tamales (wrapped in banana leaves with ginger and salt), and torta (fried with egg). Anchovies are made into dilis and fishmeal.

And remember these tips when it comes to buying processed food products.

Self-Administered Test on Water - True or False, 50 Items

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday [www.pbs.gov.ph]

Parks and Wildlife Nature Center, QC

1. H20 is the chemical formula of water which means 1 hydrogen and 2 oxygen.

2. Transpiration, respiration, evaporation have one thing in common – they are processes that send water vapor into the air.

3. Water in liquid form is cooler than water in vapor form.

4. Only 5 % of the total water on earth is freshwater, 95 % is salt water.

5. Total water on earth as ice and glacier is around 2 percent.

6. Of the total freshwater, glacier and ice make up 78.19 %, 20.58 %groundwater, and 0.82% rivers and lakes, soil 0.41%.

7. When water freezes it becomes denser or heavier.

8. Water in vapor or gaseous forms into liquid or rain when it losses heat.

9. When water evaporates it leaves behind sediments, pollutants, other chemical – in short just H20.

10. Saltwater intrusion is stronger in summer than in the rainy season.

11. Sea breeze usually occurs usually in the afternoon and early evening.

12. Land breeze occur usually in the morning towards noon.

13. We say we have sufficient rain if water has adequately supplied our aquifers – and ground water, Runoff water is not really that necessary.

14. Chlorine, methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide contribute to acid rain.

15. Acid rain and global warming have no connection to each other.

16. Why not allow a village to be part of the La Mesa watershed? It’s but a drop in the bucket so to speak. The argument is correct.

17. The village will act as caretakers of the La Mesa Reservoir – expert sila sa water management – allow them.

18. Most vulnerable to drought are land areas just above and below the equator.

19. The continuous circulation of Earth's water supply between the ocean, atmosphere, and landmasses is called the hydrologic cycle.

20. Capillary water rises to the root zone of the plants coming from the water table.

21. More water is evaporated from the ocean than is returned to the ocean by precipitation.

22. The most abundant salt in seawater is NaCl.

23. The driest soil contains water that can be used by plants.

24. Water is densest just before it freezes – this is how water breaks rocks and ice itself.

25. Weather system is traced to the differential intensity and distribution of the ocean water.

26. The two months the Philippines has the highest amount of rainfall is August and September.

27. Steam engine is a new invention, allegedly by a Filipino.

28. While we suffer of lack of rain, India, Australia and the US are experiencing floods and typhoons, tornadoes.

29. The most common agents of erosion is running water and wind.

30. The idea of using natural steam to generate electricity dates from about 1950.

31. The discharge of a river usually increases downstream.

32. The biggest dam in the world today is the Aswan Dam in China across the Yangtze River.

33. Aral Se in Russia, Sea Galilee, Dead Sea, Baltic Sea are salty.

34. The more sandy the soil is, the longer it can retain water - because it has larger spaces between particles that that in clayey.

35. The integrity of the watershed is in its being multi-layered - or multi-storied.

36. When it rains hard in a few days the water in swimming pools and lakes turn green because of acid rain.

37. We feel the effects of the Amihan as early as Septemberrrrrr.

38. Water is Nature’s general solvent, it comprises 90 percent of the bodies of most organisms on earth.

39. In the Philippines our estuaries are saltier during the Habagat season than during the Amihan season.

River 
40. The strongest typhoons that hit the Philippine is towards the end of the year.

41. All oceans of the world are interconnected.

42. Lightning and thunder occur at the same time.

Loboc River,Bohol

43. The greatest agent of erosion that levels anything along its way are the glaciers.

44. Cumulus cloud brings rain – it is a good sign even if it becomes stratus cloud.

45. Formation of acid rain start with evaporation – picking up along its way the pollutants.

46. Kaingin is allowed as long as it is outside watersheds of reservoirs.

47. Hydrogen fuel when spent will form with Oxygen to form water – so water is the by-product of hydrogen engines.

48. Dilution with water is the most popular way of cheating customers: Shampoo, patis, vinegar, soup, and broth, honey, syrup, liquid medicine, alcohol. There’s a saying, “tubig ang binibili mo.”

49. Convection of water is poor, warm water tends to remain on top, thus plankton population is lower in the tropic than in temperate waters.

50. To compensate for poor convection, wave action helps mix warm and cold water as current moves from deep to shallow water. ~

Ode to a Ruin

Dr Abe V Rotor
 Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday

Ruin of a convent, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Ruin, ruin you are not lost;

the victor left you the honor

of defeat, he of pride and lust

turned shame, and you of valor.

NOTE: This facade was torn down to give way to a new building.

Fly On My Little Kite and Other Poems of Sister Macarius Lacuesta, SPC

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday

Kite flying season, detail of mural, AVR 2007

If imagery is more vivid than vision, take it from Sr. Macarius – religious, scholar, poet.

“Fly on my little kite

Ride on the wings of the wind…

Over plains and dales,

Reach on to the heights,

Hear the whispers of the treetops,

And the secrets of the clouds.”

- Fly on My Little Kite

She samples us with the timelessness, and the vastness of imagery that transcends to all ages – the young and the old, the past and present – and beyond. It unleashes the searching mind to freedom, liberating the soul with the confidence of a hand that holds the string of that kite.

For who would not like to fly on that kite in order to see the world, or at least to be taller from where he stands, or to turn the hands of time and be a child again even only for a while? That child in all of us, it must live forever. It lives in a dragonfly many years ago we captured for fun.

“Ah, you bring me back to my yesteryears

When I would run to catch you…

The sound your wings did make was music to me…

And then the childish whim satisfied, I set you free.”

- You Naughty Dragonfly

Adventure, simple as it may, carries us to the open field, and its pleasant memories make us feel reborn. Sister Macarius’ unique imagery comes at the heels of virtual reality as one reflects on her poems. Yet, on the other side of the poetess’ nature, she is real, she is here and now.

“through open fields she walked…

tired and weary,

she slumped on the stump

of an acacia tree.”

From here she journeyed into the deep recesses of the roots of the sturdy tree. How forceful, how keen are her thoughts, true to being a devout religious.

“For their roots journey to the deep earth

Was a determined search for water,

Unmindful of the encounter with darkness,

Where cold and heat would not reach.”

- Journey to the Deep.

Faith is as deep as the roots of a sturdy tree. Such analogy refines the moral of the poem. It is a parable in itself. The poet paused. In prayer she said in the last part of the poem, poignant yet firm and believing in the fullness of thrust and confidence of a Supreme Being.

“Lord, sink my roots into the depths of unwavering faith in You;

Help me believe that in my encounter

With darkness, hope may be borne

And my life will manifest all

The goodness, the beauty that is You.”

- Journey to the Deep

While poems do not drive a lesson like hitting a nail on the head, so to speak, they provide a mellowing effect, especially to us adults, to accept lessons in life. Such is the commonality of the poems of Sister Macarius, Sister Mamerta Rocero and Sister Jude Belmonte Paat, who are respected literary figures of the Saint Paul of Chartres congregation. Their poems have a deep message to the reader in the ways of respecting and loving God. They often begin with reverence for life.

“All you peoples, clap your hands and sing,

The God of Creation has done wonderful deeds

And the earth is full of His handiworks

All for you and me.”

We picture God as detached, way above the level of man. Great writers in the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Dumas and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow can attest to that. More so with Michaelangelo as shown in his mural, Creation. And yet we believe that man is the image of God. The anthropocentric view is that man was created in the likeness of God, and that he is the custodian of His creation. How lucky is man indeed to be the center of God’s attention! In Sr. Macarius' Child of the Kingdom, she starts with a question, “Are you a child of the Kingdom?" Then she proceeds to answer the question herself.

“Even with a sense of wonder

Holding a cup full of surprises,

Reading out to share with others

The joy of His abiding presence

Nurturing within your being

The hope of eternal life.”

We may not know the places and boundaries of eternity and kingdom. They are too far out there for us to grasp and believe, much more to understand. Yet we have learned to accept them, grew up with them, abstract as they are, in the name of faith and doctrine. They are there laid upon the path we all travel. At its end lies our salvation, which is as abstract as eternity and kingdom.

Our modern world has become skeptical about abstract things. It is moving away from rituals of faith to rituals of entertainment. Action demands reason. Imagination cannot be left unquestioning. Even science remote from technology is theory. Religions too, continue to evolve, breaking away from the moorings of tradition and dogma. Mystery and faith are no longer the perfect partners as they did for centuries. And the world has become more vigilant against conquerors using religion for their greed, sharing the bounties of conquest with it. And religion that keeps the colonial master in power, sitting beside the throne.

Just like Christianity replaced the long revered Aztec sun god, and the gods and goddesses of Mt. Olympus that survived Roman rule but vanishing with its fall, we ask ourselves today, “Will Vatican finally lose its global power and vast wealth? Will cultism create an exodus away from the church?” And now come the cybergods, riding on satellites and the Internet and entering our living rooms at any time without knocking on our doors. And here is a hydra of corporate cultures, a kind of religion itself.

Sr. Macarius’ poems do not deal with issues about faith, eternity, salvation, kingdom, and the like, endorsing them to debate. She does not act like a doctor of the church even if she carries a doctorate degree in philosophy. Yet in her own gentle way she invites the reader to the fold, riding on that little kite, running in the open field after a dragonfly. This reflects the deep philosophy of Sister Macarius about the meaning of life.  

For what is eternity but to be “a child forever,” (A thing of beauty is a joy forever – Joyce Kilmer). What is kingdom but the realm we once lived before we became grownups, in the words of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’ in The Little Prince? And salvation? Oh, it is in innocence when the conscience is not bothered. (The Brothers Grimm)

“Naughty dragonfly…I am born once again to a child –
alive and free.”

“Catch the sight of a tree… and rest for a while.”
- Under the Fig Tree

“Speak to me in the loveliness of a rose
Fresh and sparkling with the morning dew.”
- A World Full of You

“You sing to me in the chirping of love birds,
Greeting each other at the break of day.”
- A World Full of You

“Listen to the story of that grand mountain
Like a faithful sentinel standing there.”
- Fly on My Little Kite.”

“How blest and gifted I am to be one
With a beautiful world.”
- A World Full of You

“Lord, help me become the child of Your Kingdom.”
- Child of the Kingdom

It was a bright morning when Sister Macarius visited me at the former St Paul University Museum in Quezon City some years ago. She showed me a collection of poems she made. “I have not written poems for a long, long time,” she said and that started a couple of hours of pleasant conversation about poetry. She exuded a lovely smile as she recited her poems. “Beautiful,” I said, amazed at what a septuagenarian lady can make of poetry which usually blooms in youth. 

That was the last time I saw Sister Macarius.

The amihan wind had just arrived. I saw a tarat bird perched on the nearby caimito tree singing. Up in the sky a kite was flying. I remembered Sister Macarius.

“Fly on my little kite

Do not let fear daunt you,

For the hand that holds the strings

Knows best and watches over you.”

*In memory of the late poet.