Not Everything Has to Taste Good

Not every day feels good, but it still builds something.

Las Piñas • 119th Founding and 29th Cityhood Anniversary • March 27, 2026

We grow up thinking life should always feel good, but it doesn’t. Some days are light, some are heavy. Same place, same people, different outcome. That’s normal.

Not everything is meant to be exciting, and not everything is meant to be sweet. There are people who just show up and do the work, quiet, repetitive, real. It may look plain, but it builds something.

At some point, we question things. We look for more flavor, more meaning, but not everything needs to feel intense to matter.

And then there’s truth. Once we start bending it, everything becomes unclear, even if nothing around us changes.

So the difference is not the place. It’s what we choose. Life will not always taste the way we want, but it still shapes us.

Years ago, I wrote a song about this—simple, but it stayed with me.

Salts of Las Piñas
July 21, 1989

This is the place where I grew up 
Where most of the people I know 
But there are some bitter ends of life 
And you can’t always taste the spice 

In the blue sky, the birds fly 
But at times dark clouds pass by 
You’ll never see the glory of the kingdom 
If you engage in powerful lies

Las Piñas, just a taste of 
The salts of Las Piñas

In the morning, workers make piles 
Of the crystals for refection 
I used to argue about consumption 
But you can’t always taste the spice 

The Rise and Disappearance of Salt in Las Piñas

Before the 1970s, the salt industry in Las Piñas was active, with salt beds spread across coastal areas, especially near the Zapote–Bacoor side. By the late 1970s into the 1980s, it began to decline as urbanization grew, land was converted, and real estate became more profitable than salt production. By the late 1980s to early 1990s, only the last traces remained, with the industry nearly gone. From the mid-1990s onward, salt production had fully disappeared as Las Piñas shifted into a more residential and commercial area, a change that accelerated after it became a city in 1997. This decline was driven by land conversion, pollution and changing coastlines, cheaper imported salt, and the availability of more stable income from other jobs.

⌨ ᴛʸᵖⁱⁿᵍ ᴏᵘᵗ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉ ʙˡᵘᵉ ᵈᵃʳᵉᵐ ᵐᵘˢⁱᶜ ᵇˡᵒᵍ

The music of Darem Placer

UAPs (UFOs), the Bible, and the Bigger Universe

The heavens are vast, and faith leaves room for mystery—could life beyond Earth be part of God’s creation too?

I’ve seen something strange three times in the sky—in Las Piñas, Philippines—UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) or traditionally called UFO (Unidentified Flying Object).

First: a steady aircraft blinking different colors, unlike any normal plane.

Second: mysterious “balls of light” gliding and shifting silently above the city.

And third—the most vivid—around 1 PM, a shiny orb in broad daylight, moving like someone pressing fast-forward then pause, again and again.

These all happened back when there were no smartphones to capture them, only my own eyes and memory.

Each time, I’m left with the same question: are we really alone?

The Bible doesn’t say “we’re alone”

If you actually read Scripture, there’s no verse declaring “Earth is the only home of life.” Instead, you find verses like:

• Psalm 19:1 — “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.”

• Colossians 1:16 — “For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.”

The Bible is clear about who created everything, but silent on whether other beings exist. Even angels are non-human, intelligent creations of God—already proof that humanity isn’t alone in His design.

Theology’s open door

The Vatican Observatory’s former director, Fr. José Gabriel Funes, once said that if extraterrestrials exist, they too are God’s creatures. Pope Francis even joked that if aliens came asking for baptism, “Who are we to close the door?”

So faith isn’t threatened by the possibility. It simply affirms that whatever exists—seen or unseen, near or far—belongs to the same Creator.

A bigger, wider faith

Maybe those strange objects I saw were drones, balloons, or tricks of light. Or maybe they weren’t. Either way, the universe is so vast it reminds us we’re not the center of everything.

• Isaiah 55:9 — “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

And now comes World Space Week 2025 (October 4–10), with its theme “Living in Space.” For the rich, maybe it’s an exciting playground. But for the poor, survival on Earth is already the daily mission. Living in space only makes sense if what we learn up there helps life be better down here.

And if aliens do exist, I can only hope they’ll help us fulfill last year’s theme—“Space and Climate Action”—because saving Earth still feels like the most important mission of all. 🌍✨

ᴛʸᵖⁱⁿᵍ ᴏᵘᵗ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉ ʙˡᵘᵉ ᵈᵃʳᵉᵐ ᵐᵘˢⁱᶜ ᵇˡᵒᵍ

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