Living with Nature Series: "Childhood is Forever" in 10 Parts

Living With Nature Series

Childhood is Forever

Dr Abe V Rotor

“For in every adult there dwells the child that was, and in every child there lies the adult that will be.” –John Connolly

Part 1 - Painting: "Childhood is Forever"
Part 2a - Edge of the Sea and Childhood,

Part 2b- Immortal is Art's Aim and Goal

Part 2c- Sweet Childhood

Part 2d- Childhood Reflection of Time Past

Part 2e- A Wall Mural Park for Kids

Part 2f- Dawn of Art in Children - An Awakening

Part 3 - 6 Stories of Childhood, a Personal Experience

Part 4a - Children's Literature

Part 4b- My Childhood - the Glorious Age of Comics

Part 4c - Re-discovering Old Books for Kids at the Living with Nature Center

Part 5a - Child kissing a fish

Part 5b - Respite in Drawing

Part 5c - Second time around in my prime through art.

Part 6 - Echoes of Childhood

Part 7a - Children of Nature

Part 7b Children and Nature - An Omnipotent Treaty

Part 8 - The Seed of Childhood

Part 9 - A Piece of Eden on a Wall

Part 10 - Children's Art Workshop in 18 Parts

Part 1 - Painting: "Childhood is Forever"

Early childhood experiences from birth to age eight affect the development of the brain's architecture, which provides the foundation for all future learning, behavior and health. A strong foundation helps children develop the skills they need to become well-functioning adults. (Dr. Jack Shonkoff, Director Harvard Center on the Developing Child)

Dr Abe V Rotor

Art Instructor

Childhood is Forever, in acrylic on canvas by Hannah Hediko P Laurente and Harish Hamiko P Laurente, in 3 sessions, under the tutorship of the author at the Living with Nature Center, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. August 2024,

Childhood is...

Childhood is a time in our life when everything seems perfect and wonderful.
Childhood is a world far away from the real world free from burdens and tensions.
Childhood is a period to learn and master the essentials of life and living.
Childhood is the full and harmonious development of personality in a family environment.
Childhood is living in an atmosphere of happiness, understanding and love.
Childhood is time to enjoy bedside stories, family anecdotes, and life updates.
Childhood is pure bliss, light moments, treasured memories, captured innocence.
Childhood is wishing to be older, and when in old age wishing to be younger.

Full view of the painting (20" x 28") with details shown in succeeding images.

Man - Child of Years Ago*

This is a beautiful world to the young:
Faces clouds make, and kites fly high,
In kaleidoscopic colors of the sun.
While nests on trees sweetly cry.

If not for the fish and Siberian breeze.
The fields sleep, save a songbird;
But the clock doesn't stop in hammock's ease -
A chime's urging to be heard.

Not enough is summer, transient is the game
That starts with glee and ends with sigh
As the season ends; but it is not the aim
Of the sky to make children cry.

Freud and Thoreau - these great minds before saw
What makes man, child of years ago,
Wading in a pond or climbing a bough,
His kite rising to heaven's glow.

Details: A flock of white doves playfully takes care of their fledglings and chicks in their nests, among kites hanging in the trees. Right, treetops serve as playground and home of many creatures like gecko lizard and wild bees, as well as foothold of ferns, lianas and orchids.

"White doves are symbolic of new beginnings, peace, fidelity,

love, luck and prosperity." (A Dove's Love)

Promenading is a pastime in a beautiful scenery, a happy moment communing with Nature. Right, wild fowls, reptiles, amphibians, fish and other living things abound in a pristine and unspoiled environment. They comprise the natural landscape and ecological system. A pristine environment is synonymous with “untouched,” a place where human hands have not intruded into the natural progression of life, and not corrupted by civilization.

Loafing

Oh, how we love the fields like farmers do,
But not our classmates in school though;
And Nature more than our teachers know
What the sun and rain in childhood sow.*

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.”- Sir John Lubbock

Fishing is but a hobby, a kind of sport friendly to nature. Here a fisherboy is not a stranger to the wildlife* indigenous to the place, indeed a manifestation of a friendly and harmonious relationship bound by a primal treaty of man and nature.

Fisherboy**

By a stream on a rock ledge many a dream grew with the water flowing, the clouds rising, the breeze whispering in a nearby tree, its shade creating images of art and fantasy.

Hours lazily passed, but how short was a day fishing, from sunrise to noon and back again when the fish would return, the bamboo pole suddenly becoming heavy with a big catch.

Other boys join the cheer, the louder the bigger the fish was, or fading with a whimper when it got away, and it was always "the big fish that got away," an adage of every fisher folk.

Away from town, away from school, away from home for a while - this freedom in innocence and adventure, the elders would call laziness, stubbornness and aimlessness in growing up.

Boys don't know the difference grownups want them to be, but wait for their own time, when childhood yields to the demands of the world, the world though big is "prison" to grownups.

They too, were children before - the "man in the boy" comes later when there are no more big fish to catch, the tree has overgrown the rock ledge and other boys are longer around.

Like birds migrating and returning, season after season in Vivaldi's refrain, and Mozart's lament, life goes on in rhythm, but time couldn't wait, while dreams sought for reality.

There are many fish in the world, the biggest to catch always a dream - fame, ideas, wealth, sacrifice, honor, popularity - aiming at these to the end, in triumph, surrender or defeat.

Years later a man in gray hair appeared, he saw a familiar boy fishing, his thoughts seemed far away, his fishing pole bending to his excitement, then snapped - it was the big fish that got away. ~

Wildlife is integral to the world's ecosystems, providing balance and stability to nature's processes. The goal of wildlife conservation is to ensure the survival of these species, and to educate people on living sustainably with other species. - National Geographic Society

Workshop attendees include parents of children participants, as well as older art enthusiasts who comprise a separate but similar art workshop sessions at the Center conducted regularly by the author upon requests from the community, organizations and schools, such as the University of Northern Philippines.

Growing Up With Art**

Kids' World Apart from "Kids"

Take a break from computers and the mall,
confines of the small;
break the wall of idleness, go for the ball
fast and make a goal.

Solve the puzzle, some genius await you
for all you know;
left to right of the brain and back will show
a wider view of you.

Take the road rough, look ahead, move on,
from the bandwagon;
it's your adventure, and follow the sun,
sunrise to sundown. ~

* AVRotor, Don't Cut the Trees, Don't UST 2010

** avrotor.blogspot.com Living with Nature

Part 2a - Edge of the Sea and Childhood

Dr Abe V Rotor

“You have a lifetime to work, but children are only young once.”

―Polish Proverb

Palo, Leyte

The fringe of the land, the edge of the sea,
swell and recede in calm and in rage,
telling a saga or make-believe story
of child becoming man page by page. ~

Part 2b -Immortal is Art's Aim and Goal

Dr Abe V Rotor

A Happy Family with Nature in acrylic, a scene from a composite

mural (5ftx30ft) by AV Rotor, 1996

Three decades ago scenes come fresh and alive

though my hair has turned few and gray;

from a forgotten corner, a canvas long and wide,

brings back happy childhood to this day.

The colors may have faded but not the scenes,

like they were yesterday, and that's not all -

my family has always been whole ever since,

immortal indeed is art's aim and goal.

Nature in Composite Scenes, rolled mural by the author

(5ft x 30ft) 1996, designed as stage backdrop for drama,

and musical presentations. Living with Nature Center,

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. ~

Part 2c - Sweet Childhood

Dr Abe V Rotor

Childhood at the beach (Photo by the author)

Childhood is when the night passes

quickly, rising as the sun rises,

to watch the herons stake the fishes

singing with the birds in the trees.

Frogs are still before the kingfisher;

rain is read from a friendly dragonfly;

nests are secrets only to the finder -

these lessons live to live by.

War is solved in kites and fishing poles,

in hide-and-seek and barefoot races;

faith lies in seasons the sky extols

and virtues friendship embraces.

Peals of thunder break the afternoon,

driving the fowls to their tree;

and we catch the raindrops, and soon,

across the field, dash for home in glee.

Respite not enough, schooldays are long,

and everything is passing imagery,

ephemeral is childhood, and all along

the years are gone, but blissful memory.

Take it from the sages of old who knew

what makes a man, the child of years ago.

what the seed was and how it grew –

look and behold! It is true. ~

Childhood on the countryside (Photo by the author)

Part 2d- Childhood Reflection of Time Past

Dr Abe V Rotor

Childhood Reflection of Time Past in oil on canvas

by AV Rotor, circa 1980

It is on pristine still water
On the face of a wide blue sky,
Climbing on trees and rocks up high
That we see ourselves in the hands of time;

Through the mist we see children
Of many years back with Mark Twain's
Huckleberry Finn and company
On a meandering river to the sea.

Who is fishing there? Ahoy!
Only the tingling chime answers;
The childhood in us throbs, throbs
With the sweet music of time past. ~

Part 2e- A Wall Mural Park for Kids

Wall Mural and Verses

By Dr Abe V Rotor

Move over computer games,

Move over shopping mall,

Move over cinema, TV shows,

Move over behind the Wall.

Welcome the green grass lawn,

Welcome the murmuring stream,

Welcome the singing of birds,

Welcome Nature in day dream.

Echoes on the wall of lilting children,

Echoes on the wall of rustling trees,

Echoes on the wall of distant thunder,

Echoes on the wall of passing breeze.

At peace with the world in happy childhood,

At peace with the world in air castle and dream,

At peace with the world in solace and quiet,

At peace with the world beside a running stream. ~

Part 2f- Dawn of Art in Children - An Awakening

"Coming of age to see the world beyond childhood,

bright as the sun, azure as the sky.

Hills to mountains grow, adventure awaits, behold!

birds in spring to somewhere fly. "

Selected works of pre-school and primary school pupils

in a summer art workshop.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Weaning

Coming of age to see the world beyond childhood,

bright as the sun, azure as the sky;

Hills to mountains grow, adventure awaits, behold!

birds in spring to somewhere fly.

Kites
Kites whatever shape and make,
fly high for the young one's sake
to dream in becoming great.

Sailboats
Rhyme and rhythmn,
music I hear,
waves and sky,
serene and clear.

Freedom
Jump for joy at the setting sun,
into darkness away from man.

Emergence
Shy and meek
coy to speak;
hide and creep
or back to sleep.

Summertime
Meadow in summer,
to autumn bound;
life in its fullest
for Nature's crown.

Where are the Children?
Wonder where the children are
at this time of the year?
playing on the hills, under the trees,
Look! a flock of birds in the air
moving out of the chill.

Fruits
Half ripe, half done in the setting sun,
hurry up the colors before they're gone. ~

Part 3 - Six Stories of Childhood, a Personal Experience

1. Paper wasps on the run! Or was it the other way around?

2. Watching war planes in dogfight.
3. The Case of the Empty Chicken Eggs
4. The caleza I was riding ran over a boy.
5. Eugene and I nearly drowned in a river.
6. Trapping edible frogs

Dr Abe V Rotor

1. Paper wasps on the run! Or was it the other way around?

This happened to me, rather what I did, when I was five or six - perhaps younger, because I don’t know why I attack a colony of putakti or alimpipinig (Ilk). It was raw courage called bravado when you put on courage on something without weighing the consequences. It was hatred dominating reason, motivated by revenge.

I was sweeping the yard near a chico tree when I suddenly felt pain above my eye. No one had ever warned me of paper wasps, and I hadn’t been stung before. I retreated, instinctively got a bikal bamboo and attacked their papery nest, but every time I got close to it I got stung. I don’t know how many times I attacked the enemy, each time with more fury, and more stings, until dad saw me. I struggled under his strong arms sobbing. I was lucky, kids my size can’t take many stings. There are cases bee poison can cause the heart to stop.

2. Watching war planes in dogfight.

It was the last year of WWII, 1945. I was going four at that time and the images of planes fighting are still vivid today. Toward the east is the Cordillera range that looked blue in the distance. The view was clear from our house, and hideout. Even if the old San Vicente church partly got across our view, we saw now and then warplanes passing above. It was also the first and only time I saw a double body aircraft flying. There was at least one occasion warplanes fought somewhere above Vigan, and a plane simply bursts in flame and dark smoke. My dad prodded us to go back to our underground hideout.

When I was in high school I had a teacher in literature, Mrs. Socorro Villamor. She was the widow of war hero, Col. Jesus Villamor, one of the greatest Filipino pilots in WWII. After downing several Japanese planes, his own plane was hit and he died in the crash. Camp Villamor was named in his honor. My classmate and I wondered why Mrs. Villamor was often wearing black. At one time she recited for us Flow Gently Sweet Afton. She even sang it, and then came to a halt sobbing. We were all very quiet and let her recover. I could only imagine that up there fighting the Japanese is the great Colonel Villamor, whom my teacher was still mourning ten years after.

I believe that the pain she was then carrying made her the best literature teacher I have ever met. Today I still can recite a dozen selected passages from great American and English poets, and my favorite comes from Flow Gently Sweet Afton. Now and then in my lonely moments I hum its plaintive melody.

3. The Case of the Empty Chicken Eggs

Soon as I was big enough to climb the baqui (brooding nest) hanging under the house and trees. I found out that if I leave as decoy one or two eggs in the basket, the more eggs you gather in the afternoon. Then a new idea came. With a needle, I punctured the egg and sucked the content dry. It tasted good and I made some to substitute the natural eggs for decoy.

Dad, a balikbayan after finishing BS in Commercial Science at De Paul University in Chicago, called us on the table one evening. "First thing tomorrow morning we will find that hen that lays empty eggs.”

It was a family tradition that every Sunday we had tinola - chicken cooked with papaya and pepper (sili) leaves. Dad would point at a cull (the unproductive and least promising member of the flock) and I would set the trap, a baqui with a trap door and some corn for bait. My brother Eugene would slash the neck of the helpless fowl while my sister Veny and I would be holding it. The blood is mixed with glutinous rice (diket), which is cooked ahead of the vegetables.

That evening I could not sleep. What if dad’s choice is one of our pet chicken? We even call our chickens by name. The empty eggs were the cause of it all, so I thought.

In the morning after the mass I told dad my secret. He laughed and laughed. I didn't know why. I laughed, too. I was relieved with a tinge of victorious feeling. Thus the case of the empty eggs was laid to rest. It was my first “successful” experiment.

In the years to come I realized you just can’t fool anybody. And by the way, there are times we ask ourselves, “Who is fooling who?”

4. The caleza I was riding ran over a boy.
Basang, my auntie yaya and I were going home from Vigan on a caleza, a horse carriage. I was around five or six years old, the age children love to tag along wherever there is to go. It was midday and the cochero chose to take the shorter gravelly road to San Vicente by way of the second dike road that passes Bantay town. Since there was no traffic our cochero nonchalantly took the smoother left lane fronting a cluster of houses near Bantay. Suddenly our caleza tilted on one side as if it had gone over a boulder. To my astonishment I saw a boy around my age curled up under the wheel. The caleza came to a stop and the boy just remained still and quiet, dust covered his body. I thought he was dead. Residents started coming out. I heard shouts, some men angrily confronting the cochero. Bantay is noted for notoriety of certain residents. Instinct must have prodded Basang to take me in her arms and quickly walked away from the maddening crowd. No one ever noticed us I supposed.

5. Eugene and I nearly drowned in a river.

There was a friendly man who would come around and dad allowed him to play with us. People were talking he was a strange fellow. We simply did not mind. He was a young man perhaps in his twenties when Eugene and I were kids in the early grades in San Vicente. One day this guy (I forgot his name) took us to Busiing river, a kilometer walk or so from the poblacion. The water was inviting, what would kids like best to do? We swam and frolicked and fished, but then the water was steadily rising so we had to hold on the bamboo poles staked in the water to avoid being swept down by the current. I held on tightly, and I saw Eugene doing the same on a nearby bamboo pole. The guy just continued fishing with his bare hands, and apparently had forgotten us. Just then dad came running and saved us. We heard him castigate the fellow who, we found out that he mentally retarded that he didn’t even realized the extreme danger he put us in.

6. Trapping edible frogs

It was fun to trap frogs when I was a kid. I would dig holes in the field, around one and one-half feet deep, at harvest time. Here the frogs seek shelter in these holes because frogs need water and a cool place. Insects that fall in to the hole also attract them. Early in the morning I would do my rounds, harvesting the trapped frogs. Frogs are a favorite dish among Ilocanos especially before the age of pesticides. The frog is skinned, its entrails removed, and cooked with tomato, onion and achuete (Bixa orellana) to make the menu deliciously bright yellow orange.

Acknowledgement: Internet photos

4a - CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

1. Mackie and the Owl

Until I captured the scary creature

with paint brush on the wall,

where kids could talk to and touch;

now the owl is a friend to all.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Mackie poses before a wall mural painted by the

author at her home in Lagro QC 2015

Mackie used to be afraid of the owl,
imagined or on the screen.
and would fling into embrace blind
until it is no longer seen.

The creature would appear in the dark,
in her favorite cartoon;
by its hooting in the hollow of a tree,
she would freeze like stone.

Until I captured the scary creature
with paint brush on the wall,
where kids could talk to and touch;
now the owl is a friend to all. ~

2. The World in his Paint Brush

Markus 2 author's grandson paints a mural 2015, QC

"Freedom in imagination, young as he is, while grownups yearn for expression outside the confines of art; who is the master then? Yet, the path that he takes is rough and uncertain, sans model and determination he'll miss his aim." - A V Rotor

"Nothing, indeed, is more dangerous to the young artist than any conception of ideal beauty: he is constantly led by it either into weak prettiness or lifeless abstraction: whereas to touch the ideal at all, you must not strip it of vitality." - Oscar Wilde

"It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color - not color used descriptively, that is, but as a means of personal expression." - Henri Matisse

3. "Nature is a world of reality and fantasy."- avr

Details of Mural by Dr Abe V Rotor

"There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter." - Rachel Carson

Wish the animals are alive and tame.

They never saw the animals in the wild;

no, not in the concrete jungle of the city;

save a visit to the zoo, images on TV,

it's a world of reality and fantasy.

"I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles."

- Anne Frank

White Doves Meet the Sun - a Forest Scene.

Morning comes late in the forest,

and evening comes early;

So with creatures at play or rest

in their leisure and play.

"My wish is to stay always like this, living quietly in a corner of nature."
- Claude Monet

Part 4a - My Childhood - the Glorious Age of Comics

Dr Abe V Rotor

On discovering old newspapers of the fifties
backing of picture frames for cleaning,
I found myself a child again learning to read
on my dad's lap listening.

In my sunset years I look back at my heroes:
Rusty Riley, Joe Palooka the boxer,
Buz Sawyer the detective, and Long Sam -
Abe Lincoln alike - four scores after.

No computer then, TV and even radio rare,
Newspapers still fresh the day after,
Happenings weren't far from home and town,
Childhood was longer and happier.

Some popular comic strips in the 50s, Manila Bulletin

Rusty Riley
Blondie
Gasoline Alley
Buz Sawyer
Joe Palooka
Moon Mullins
Long Sam
Pugo

These are photos of comic strips of Manila Bulletin my dad subscribed before WW II and resumed in 1946. I was a preschooler then. Comics were my first reading companions, Illustrated Classics (famous novels like Swiss Family Robinson, Treasure Island, Huckleberry Finn), and comic strips and cartoons of Manila Bulletin. These have taken the backseat, many totally lost, in the age modern entertainment and communication, principally with the TV, Internet through the computer, and lately social media (smart phones.)

Part 4b - Re-discovering Old Books for Kids

at the Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Dr Abe V Rotor

“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading

one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”―Maya Angelou

“Don’t give up reading. The more you practice, the easier it will get.”- Unknown

“Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.” – Lady Bird Johnson

“Reading is the gateway for children that makes all other learning possible.”

– Barack Obama

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . .

The man who never reads lives only one.” – George R.R. Martin

“There is no friend as loyal as a book.”- Ernest Hemingway

“The whole world opened up to me when I learned to read”- Mary McCleod Bethune

“The only way to do all the things you’d like to do is to read.” – Tom Clancy

“I had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that

grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot.” – Bill Gates

“While we try to teach our children all about life, Our children teach us what life is all about.” – Angela Schwindt

“Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.” – Charles R. Swindoll

“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” – Fred Rogers

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.”- Dr. Seuss ~

Part 5a - Child kissing a fish

Dr Abe V Rotor

Child plants a kiss on an aquarium fish. At home, QC

That's the way innocence works -

ephemeral to behold;

time is of the essence but once

and reigns only in childhood,

when barriers are bridged and crossed,

in the diversity of the world,

and to spread love to all creatures,

the very young and the old;

praise what it means years ahead

this child and the living word

unspoken, a kiss of innocence

that promises accord. ~

Part 5b - Respite in Drawing

Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

“I experience things by drawing them.” -Eleanor Dickinson

"Lolo," knocking on the gate, they called,

"Why it's gloomy, typhoon's coming," I said;

And the wind had started blowing cold;

Children are children, bless them, oh Lord.

And I, a parent, a teacher grown very old,

Rose from my armchair to meet the three;

"Can we draw?" chorused they cheerfully

What shall they draw when the sky's heavy?

Dr Abe V Rotor

Facilitator

Living with Nature garden with Rizal's shrine as background.

The shrine depicts his life in exile at Dapitan as artist, scientist,

doctor, teacher and farmer, among other roles.

Who knows more than one's mind and feeling,

more than all the world's hearing and seeing?

“When I draw I rule the world.” -Mort Walker

They write "finished" when they've not really started;

children are impatient to what we grownups wanted.

As an artist, art's never finished, take Venus de Milo,

or the works of Michelangelo and Vincent Van Gogh.

However I explained, chorused they "Tapos na, Lolo."

Ideals never die, they live in innocence of childhood,

Where have all the singing birds gone after a typhoon?

Listen to the children with colors, they'll return soon.

Children see beauty restored sooner than we do,

and a brighter tomorrow. ~

Author's Note: From the neighborhood these three children came to learn drawing in the course of weather disturbances caused by a series of typhoons lately. School classes were suspended, but thanks to the brief calm moments the children found respite in drawing. They brought home their works, in order to share their acquired skill and optimism to their family and community.

Part 5c - Second time around in my prime through art.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Wall mural by the author in his residence in Lagro QC, Metro Manila

Neighborhood kids at Greater Lagro QC take time out to play and

pose before a wall mural of nature painted by the author.

I'm among these kids, second time in my prime;

what secret has Nature to break the boundary
of space and hold back the hands of time,
and save the happy childhood in memory? ~

Part 6 - Echoes of Childhood

Dr Abe V Rotor

The Uplands, wall mural author's residence San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Whispers and footsteps on the hall and wall,
Greet a stormy morning; candles flickered,
Sheltered by warm and toughened hands,
Leading the young ones to their classroom.

And courtesies were the smile of familiarity:
Heads moved to acknowledge, to recollect
Old memories coming fresh and nostalgic,
Of those who once passed through the portals.

Memories about a child becoming man,
Men’s wanderings, and man’s return to reality;
When with age, he looks back at the ideal,
Not in its pursuit but for treasured peace.

Whispers and footsteps on the hall and wall,
Echoes, sweet echoes, perhaps music to a child
On some strong shoulder lifts a heavy eyelid;
A curtain falls, a new chapter begins. ~

Part 7a - Children of Nature

Dr Abe V Rotor
Wall mural by the author in his residence in Lagro QC, Metro Manila

Neighborhood kids at Greater Lagro QC take time out to play and

pose before a wall mural of nature painted by the author.

I'm among these kids, three generations after;
what secret has Nature to break the boundary
of space and hold back the hands of time,
and save the happy childhood in memory? ~

Part 7b Children and Nature - An Omnipotent Treaty

Wall Mural by Dr Abe V Rotor (7ft x 90ft)
Author's City Residence, Barangay Greater Lagro QC

"A thing of beauty is a boy forever." AVR wall mural at author's residence,

Barangay Greater Lagro, QC

Three young musketeers are set to conquer the world
away from the mall, home and school;
If Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were real and alive today,
we wouldn't know who's genius, who's fool.

Who is the primitive, who is the civilized, oh brother!
when we prefer the city over the quaint village,
car for walking distance, processed over fresh food,
philosophy over instinctive knowledge.

Everything defined in rich vocabulary, but a rose is a rose
and nothing else, energy to matter and back,
universal cycles no genius will ever truly understand,
Homo sapiens! it is humility we lack.

Innocence in children, we make up for the falsehood
of the world of grownups and sages;
Einstein and Darwin never knew the whys of the world,
children have been asking for ages.

If genius is reborn in the innocence of children,
then knowledge's into wisdom distilled,
compensated in old age for the young ones' sake:
'tis the fate of humanity in Nature sealed. ~

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

“I do not miss childhood, but I miss the way I took pleasure in small things, even as greater things crumbled. I could not control the world I was in, could not walk away from things or people or moments that hurt, but I took joy in the things that made me happy.” ― Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

“... and when all the wars are over, a butterfly will still be beautiful.”― Ruskin Bond, Scenes from a Writer's Life

"Children and Nature “Because children grow up, we think a child's purpose is to grow up. But a child's purpose is to be a child. Nature doesn't disdain what lives only for a day. It pours the whole of itself into the each moment. We don't value the lily less for not being made of flint and built to last. Life's bounty is in its flow, later is too late. Where is the song when it's been sung? The dance when it's been danced?

"It's only we humans who want to own the future, too. We persuade ourselves that the universe is modestly employed in unfolding our destination. We note the haphazard chaos of history by the day, by the hour, but there is something wrong with the picture. Where is the unity, the meaning, of nature's highest creation? Surely those millions of little streams of accident and willfulness have their correction in the vast underground river which, without a doubt, is carrying us to the place where we're expected! But there is no such place, that's why it's called utopia.

"The death of a child has no more meaning than the death of armies, of nations. Was the child happy while he lived? That is a proper question, the only question. If we can't arrange our own happiness, it's a conceit beyond vulgarity to arrange the happiness of those who come after us.” ― Tom Stoppard, The Coast of Utopia

“Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.” ― Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

Part 8 - The Seed of Childhood

Dr Abe V. Rotor

Flying kites and fishing, section of a mural painting by AVRotor 2008

Children let the night pass quickly,
Rising on the farm as the sun rises,
As early as the butterfly and the bee
And birds singing in the trees.

Frogs freeze before the kingfisher;
Rain is read from hovering dragonfly;
Nests are secrets only to the finder -
Early lessons live to live by.

War is resolved in kites and fishing poles,
In hide-and-seek and barefoot races;
Faith lies in the seasons the sky extols
And virtues friendship embraces.

Peals of thunder break the afternoon,
Driving the fowls to their tree;
The children catch the rain, and soon,
Across the field, dash for home aglee.

Respite not enough, schooldays are long,
And everything is passing imagery,
Ephemeral is childhood, and all along
The years are but blissful memory.

Take it from the sages of old who knew
What makes a man, the child of years ago.
What the seed was and how it grew –
Look and behold! It is true. ~

Part 9 - A Piece of Eden on a Wall

"Oh! If only man's wisdom can bring back Paradise lost a long time ago." - avr

Wall Mural by Dr Abe V Rotor

Kim Laurence and Sophia pose before a wall mural painted by the author

at his family residence in Lagro QC

A wall is empty no more, it dissolves into forest and stream
running down soft under the feet, spilling onto the street;
where once a city of steel and concrete, of dust and smog
reigned, where the forces of human frailty and nature meet,
rekindling wonders and adventures of childhood little known
to the city-bred whom the Good Life in disguise would cheat!

The wall is alive in three dimensions in make-believe perspective,
progeny of primary colors - red, blue and yellow, bold and mellow,
azure sky, deep blue-green sea, prism of every dewdrop bead,
sparkle of every star at night, crystalline water Narcissus saw;
if only walls can speak to mirror human longing of a happy world,
if only man's wisdom can bring back Paradise lost a long time ago! ~

Part 10 - Children's Art Workshops in 18 Parts

Make Your Pet Dog Happy, Love the Butterfly, A Dive into the Coral Reef, Growing Up With Art, Earth Day Celebration, etc

1. Make Your Pet Dog Happy

“Loving pets is a measure of man’s rationality

as true guardian of creation.” - avr

Dr Abe V Rotor

Lardy and Prince show their drawings – versions of their own pet dogs

“Love your pets and you will love the world of its wondrous gifts

of peace, harmony and compassion. And you will cease to be rue

and to feel alone.” avr

.....

Using pastel colors these kids re-create through drawing their

own concept of loving a pet dog. Food, plaything, doghouse,

clean and comfortable surroundings, and a cheerful company

are essential needs, not different from those we humans need.

These are the precursors of love, peace and understanding.

* Living with Nature Art Workshop, November 10 2019

2. LOVE THE BUTTERFLY

Children's Favorite Art Subject

Dr Abe V Rotor

Eight kids and an elementary teacher among them came over
at home one Saturday morning.
So with early butterflies fluttering among flowers in the garden,
kissing the first rays of the sun.
What shall we draw? I asked, obvious of the beautiful subject around
- the remarkable butterfly;
Hurrah! they chorused, anticipating the start of the session
- to capture the butterfly on paper.

And they did in different versions, based on a pattern of the Monarch,

the universal butterfly.

A round table workshop, capturing the impressions of a butterfly, its perfect bilateral symmetry, multi-colored wings, dainty movement - and playful elusiveness.

What is it in the mind of a child what a butterfly really is

- more so, why a butterfly in the first place?

Does she have a mind of her own, intelligence for that matter,

if you will, just like humans perhaps?

I can only surmise that the butterfly,

as a member of the ecological system,

gains from such interrelationship,

more than being independent, unattached;

more than her beauty, or all the flowers in the garden.

The child artist digs deeper about her subject:

where did she come from, where is her home.

Does she have children? What do they look like?

They were once caterpillars, I answered.

What a dichotomy, and yet ugliness gave way to beauty,

clumsiness to being dainty and pure.

So I told them the story of Paulus' Hope for the Flowers,

about two butterflies that lived in a troubled world,

and found happiness at the end.

This is our art gallery at home in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur: a floor-to-wall-to-ceiling mural complex of Nature in different scenes. Kids from the neighborhood, pupils passing by after class, come for a visit, or sit for hour or two to learn something about art. First I ask them. Do you love the butterfly? ~

3. A DIVE INTO THE CORAL REEF

"If you love to paint the sea, you will remain always young and free." avr

Dr Abe V Rotor

Travelogue into the Coral Reef Painting by Lyn 9 and JP Reyes 7, 2018

Get your paintbrush and dive into the coral reef,

the great forest of the sea;

Re-create through colors on canvas nature's gift

of biodiversity;

Edge of land, where the blue sky and sea meet,

and man with the Almighty.

Play the tune of the mermaids in the deep

to wake them up from their deep sleep,

that we may meet them and know their secret,

and tell other children before they sleep.

The books talk of evolution through competition

of survival of the fittest;

Move over Darwin and Wallace, it's cooperation

and unity the ultimate test.

Fish don't talk, perhaps they are dumb;

or we can't hear them and understand;

For our worlds are apart - sea and land

yet just across transparent pane of sand.

Mirage - vision beyond any sense,

not to the eye or the range of a lens;

the sun peeps under a cloak of green,

something stirs seen and unseen.

Do fish ever sleep?

Yes, in their peaceful cove.
Oh, humans if we ever learn
where is that peace cove. ~

4. Growing Up With Art

Kids' World Away from Kids

Dr Abe V Rotor

Take a break from computers and the mall,

confines of the small;

break the wall of idleness, go for the ball

fast and make a goal.

Solve the puzzle, some genius awaits you

for all you know;

left to right of the brain and back will show

a wider view of you.

Take the road rough, look ahead, move on,

from the bandwagon;

it's your adventure, but follow the sun,

sunrise to sundown.

Markus 3, Laurence 5, and Mackie 5 in an art workshop session

Of football and decorative art

5. Children's Integrated Art Workshop Graduates

Dr Abe V Rotor

Organizer and Instructor

Children need a break. But not to indulge on TV and computer, and complacency. In fact they don’t find relief and fulfilment from these gadgets. Instead, they need to express themselves, and not to adjust to what the machine dictates.

What better activity to offer kids on a Sunday afternoon,
but an on-the-spot painting session under the trees,
their shadow intermingling with them and their work,
urging them to just-do-it, you-can-do-it, and let-it-go ,
the creativity through the inner eye, from the inner self,
befriend “The Little Prince” when in doubt, when bored,
and discover you are not alone in this world.

Hasnia P Datucunog 11, Sanisah A Pitiilan 12

Haira P Datucunog 13, Sharina Rose Reyno 11

Lucie Denise Reyno 9, Pauleen Nicole Reyno 6

Francesca R Forges 9, Minjhin Viernes 8

Mark Jefferson Ragca 11, Mark Lester Formoso 10

Charla Cassandra R Borjal,10 Sabriya Lorin Ruelos 10

Adrianne Grace Ruelos 11, Frankyn R Pastor 8

Other Graduates

Kristel Lagasca

Dave Ong

Goldane Ruelos

Tyrone Nino Juanizo

Gerizia Mae Estigoy

Rizaldine Jade Estigoy

Yarcia, Kriz Laurenz

You may take pride in having a state-of-the-art cell-phone, but not more than a painting you yourself made. A gadget can’t be part of you, but a piece of art you made – painting, melody, story, verse - is your own. It is part of you. It is a prize you give yourself and no one else can take it away. It is a lifetime achievement. In fact, it is your legacy.

Kids in the neighborhood and from afar come to experience the adventure of integrated art under a common denominator called talent. Many ask - and doubt - if they have the talent at all. I assure them they have. Each person has, in fact under a wide profile of eight realms. Many don’t realize this potential. Kids see the world “complete” and “instant” from food, toy, music, show - to instant relationship. Why bother when it’s there at fingertip? Perhaps we, grownups must tell them the truth. Life is never designed this way. Good life is earned and it must be earned well.

Art evolved – and still is – through movements or schools, in this simplified order: primitive or ancient art (drawing in caves), realistic that is true to the subject, classical (perfection and timelessness is the essence), romantic (mainly for the elites), realism for the grassroots, impressionism and expressionism (gateway to modern art), and modern art is usually referred to as abstract, which blossomed into various and virtually free expressions.

Kids learn early in life the struggle for excellence, not in the classroom or street, but in themselves. The greatest struggle is with oneself – it is the biggest triumph, but it can be the biggest failure, too. Yet there is always the opportunity to conquer that opponent. This is the road to excellence. Each day you become a better person, ad infinitum.

Take time out with Nature from TV and computer,

from loafing around. Nature is your best teacher.

Kids learn early in life the struggle for excellence, not just in the classroom or street, but in themselves. The greatest struggle is with oneself – it is the biggest triumph, but it can be the biggest failure, too. Yet there is always the opportunity to conquer that opponent. This is the road to excellence. Each day you become a better person, ad infinitum

6. Earth Day Celebration

Ecology in the Unifying Element of World Peace

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog (avrotor.blogspot.com)

Also visit Naturalism -the Eighth Sense

Over the past decades, over 193 countries have observed the Earth Day celebration—empowering local communities, students, and governments to create a positive change for the planet, charging forward with the popular slogan, think globally, act locally. Internet

Children-Pioneers of ECOLOGICAL ECUMINISM Movement

Ecological Ecumenism through Children's Art Workshop

in expressing love and reverence in God and Nature.

Living with Nature Center, San Vicente Ilocos Sur

Earth Day Activities and Ideas

Clean Up Plastics in your community
Go to a Park with your family.
Plant a Tree!
Use Wildflowers and Native Plants.
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle in the Garden.
Stop Using Chemicals in the Garden.
Conserve Water!
Convert your home lot into a garden, Bahay Kubo style
Organize, participate in watching birds and animals
Organize, participate in festivals or events that attract tourists to see live natural activities, such as volcanoes, and astrological activities, including solar and lunar eclipses.
Write, compose poems, songs, draw, paint - be an artist. ~

7. Children's Art Workshop in the Garden

Children’s Interpretation of the theme through drawing:
“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”

Dr Abe V Rotor

Instructor

Twenty school children from San Vicente Integrated School and

San Sebastian Integrated School joined in the contest.

8. Children, Children! Love the Children

“Children are our most valuable resource.”

— Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States

“Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate.” — Anonymous

“Children need models rather than critics.” — Joseph Joubert, French moralist

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”

— Frederick Douglass, abolitionist and statesman

“The greatest legacy one can pass on to one's children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one's life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.” — Billy Graham, evangelist

“Children are not things to be molded, but are people to be unfolded.” — Jess Lair, author

“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”

— Margaret Mead, cultural anthropologist

“Children make your life important.” — Erma Bombeck, American humorist

10. Ten things to see under a microscope

(Basic Microscopy for Kids)

"You can't see miracles and great missions,

but their humble manifestations." avr

Dr Abe V Rotor

Summer Workshop for kids conducted by the author. Lagro QC 2013]

You can't see what is inside a mega mall,
but things for granted and so small;

You can't see a movie or a telenobela,
but the living world of minutiae;

You can't see Superman and Godzilla,
but their minuscule Vorticella;

You can't see the beginning and end of time,
but in between, a moment divine.

You can't see where all the wealth and money
come from, but another story.

You can't see the winning number of a game,
but a narrow path to fame.

You can't see the source of love and devotion,
but the beginning of true union.

You can't see Pasteur, Koch and Fleming,
but their little disciple striving.

You can't see miracles and great missions,
but their humble manifestations.

You can't see God as you would at the Sistine,
but His image in every thing. ~

Oxygen bubbles cling on filamentous green alga, by-product of photosynthesis. Oxygen is either dissolved in water for fish, or released into the air for land animals, including man. Chlorophyll (green pigment of plants, algae and some monerans like BGA) catches the light energy of the sun, and with CO2, produces food and oxygen which are important to life. This process is known as photosynthesis.

Yeast cells actively divide in sugar substrate in fermentation resulting in the production of ethanol or wine, and CO2 as byproduct. When used in baking, the CO2 is trapped in the dough and causes it to rise and form leavened bread. Yeast (Saccharomyces) reproduces rapidly by vegetative means - budding. Note newly formed buds, and young buds still clinging on mother cells.

Protozoans are agents of decomposition, and live on organic debris. In the process they convert it into detritus or organic matter and ultimately to its elemental composition which the next generation of plants and other life forms utilize. Protozoans or protists are one-celled organisms, having organelles which function like organs of higher animals. Protozoans live in colonies and in association with other living things as symbionts, commensals, and for the pathogenic forms, parasites.

11. Adventure with Nature through Drawing.

Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Dr Abe V Rotor

Instructor

"Lolo, can you teach us how to paint and draw?"
That was the start of an adventure with nature;
So I led the children as a guardian would do,
but more on what to learn about life in store.

For once the children set their cellphone
aside one weekend, for the adventure.

With pastel colors, they went to the field,
entered the forest, helped the sun rise.

They climbed the mountains and hills,
followed the stream flow out to the sea.

They flew with the birds in the blue sky,
met white doves come down to rest.

They drew a scary scene and entered;
with black birds and strange creatures.

Real and make-believe scenes mixed up,
where they have never been before.

Few creatures in the wild they encountered
on the field and forest - what are they really?

They missed the parrots, the eagle begging
for rescue, other endangered animals.

Aren't trees home of wildlife and ferns,
orchids, vines and other epiphytes?

Seasons are always open to meet nature,
what did they choose other than summer?

Have they found Nature's beauty and joy?
A gust of wind came passing, whispered:

"Living with Nature is a lifetime experience
every day, a most rewarding adventure."

Open the Book of Creation, I told the children
live BY, FOR, WITH Nature as you grow up.

"Lolo, can you teach us how to paint and draw?"
That was the start of an adventure with nature;
So I led the children as a guardian would do,
but more on what to learn about life in store. ~

Art enthusiasts from the neighborhood attend drawing

session with the author as guide and instructor at the

Living with Nature Center, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. ~

12. Painting: "Childhood is Forever"

“For in every adult there dwells the child that was, and in every child there lies the adult that will be.” –John Connolly

Dr Abe V Rotor

Art Instructor

Childhood is...

Childhood is a time in our life when everything seems perfect and wonderful.
Childhood is a world far away from the real world free from burdens and tensions.
Childhood is a period to learn and master the essentials of life and living.
Childhood is the full and harmonious development of personality in a family environment.
Childhood is living in an atmosphere of happiness, understanding and love.
Childhood is time to enjoy bedside stories, family anecdotes, and life updates.
Childhood is pure bliss, light moments, treasured memories, captured innocence.
Childhood is wishing to be older, and when in old age wishing to be younger.

Full view of the painting (20" x 28") with details shown in succeeding images.

Man - Child of Years Ago*

This is a beautiful world to the young:
Faces clouds make, and kites fly high,
In kaleidoscopic colors of the sun.
While nests on trees sweetly cry.

If not for the fish and Siberian breeze.
The fields sleep, save a songbird;
But the clock doesn't stop in hammock's ease -
A chime's urging to be heard.

Not enough is summer, transient is the game
That starts with glee and ends with sigh
As the season ends; but it is not the aim
Of the sky to make children cry.

Freud and Thoreau - these great minds before saw
What makes man, child of years ago,
Wading in a pond or climbing a bough,
His kite rising to heaven's glow.

"White doves are symbolic of new beginnings, peace, fidelity,

love, luck and prosperity." (A Dove's Love)

Loafing

Oh, how we love the fields like farmers do,
But not our classmates in school though;
And Nature more than our teachers know
What the sun and rain in childhood sow.*