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Now that Mother Nature is making herself felt in rather unpleasant
ways like continuous typhoons and torrential rains resulting in
floods, let us remember her kind and beneficial side and keep our
selves in good graces with her. Right outside the window one can
admire Nature as one looks at the sky, the clouds, the stars, the
moon and sun. Our lives are so entwined with her cycles and her
presence affects our very existence that we must ever be sensitive
to her.
I have just been to Bacolod City where the view
of the green growing cane fields from the plane looked like a serene
universe of fertility dressed in green. At the horizon were the
Negros mountains looking like guardians of the plain emanating
comfort and permanence. The bounties of the sea were available like
scallops, fish, cross and softshell crabs, squid. They were cooked
in the simplest and least intrusive ways that kept them distinctive,
identifiable and natural. For all these gifts, our response should
be not to abuse Nature with overfishing, overharvesting, and
forgetting to let her be sustainable by restraining ourselves from
taking the immature and young species. This discipline is the
element of sustainable development, the need of the times, the
balance that will keep life because it respects its need to multiply
and have a future that is also our future.
Fruits represent Nature’s bounty in such
varied and ingenious ways that each fruit is a miracle in itself.
Our mangoes are golden harbingers of bounty, freshness and goodness.
Chicos, atis, nangka, durian, macopa, one can go on and on. Yet some
fruits are decidedly on the wane. Have you seen mabolo, camachile,
even guavas in great or even fair amounts lately? We await santol
and lanzones but some of their seasons pass by with only fleeting
glimpses or scant attention to their presence. We must actively look
and patronize them, as they are our heritage fruits with so many
echoes in our songs, dances, and language. We use metaphors like
balimbing for shapes or for many-sided (if not frivolous) behavior
but how many young people or even adults themselves have seen,
touched and eaten a balimbing lately?
One fine day on an excursion to see the Rizal
petroglyphs with my granddaughter, we came across a banaba tree in
full bloom with its lavender flowers at their peak. I exclaimed “A
banaba tree!” whereupon my granddaughter said “Isn’t banaba a
street?” It may be a street but before that it was a tree and
everyone better know the sequence. And going back to fish, are there
maliputo fish in quantity enough to buy? It is virtually an
endangered species only available in few and far between amounts to
a small public, the result of destruction of its environment and
overfishing.
It is elating to know that the Department of
Tourism has added birdwatching to its tourist attractions in this
country. If birds can be appreciated if only for the tourists that
they bring, perhaps a thought about their habitats that need
protection and preservation will not be far behind. With the new
sensitivity should come more appreciation for their presence in
birdsong and added color to our lives. They too feature in our
literature, dance and music. This country has a wealth of bird
species, some of them unique only to us. They are our experience of
Nature.
Indeed, if one seizes the moment that one’s
awareness of Nature comes by through accident or deliberate effort,
a chapter, episode or just instance of a conscious awareness of life
can be experienced, a feeling of well-being and identification with
the nurturing universe that impels our lives.
A few weeks ago in Tagaytay at past 4 p.m., a
friend and I were conversing at the porch of a house when we were
interrupted by a long series of staccato bird syllables, so much so,
that deafened by these cries, we had to stop our conversation and
look around for the source. We were rewarded by the sight of a bird
that I recognized as a kingfisher for its brilliant azure blue
plumage. It flew in our direction and stopped to look at us by
perching right on the rail of the porch. Enough for us to note his
larger than normal size, the maroon chest feathers he sported, and
that look of appraisal that he gave us. Obviously we were in his
territory and he wanted a good look. It gave us such a charge about
the nearness and drama of Nature that the next day while we played
our golf tournament we kept a lookout for birds among the trees. And
lo and behold we spotted an oriole, yellow with black bands, fly
above us. My friend and I yelled, “Oriole, oriole” while looking
at each other and smiling because suddenly Nature and we were one.
It was a happy and memorable shock of recognition that elated us
beyond words.
miongpin@yahoo.com
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