Economics of Love

The value is not what we say,
But what you are prepared to pay.
If you should ask what love is worth,
The greatest treasure on the earth?

When high demand met low supply,
Our early market reached the sky.
I found you when my world was bare,
And priced you like an asset rare.

The cost to keep you by my side,
Is every path I cast aside.
The value of the unpicked route,
Becomes the price of this pursuit.

With nothing left, I choose defeat,
And walk away in full retreat.
The market closed, we stand apart,
A bankrupt ledger and a heart.

But soon the daily toll increased,
Until my capital had ceased.
The premium began to swell,
Beyond the things I had to sell.

The price of love is now too steep,
A deficit I cannot keep.
I cannot pay the toll required,
My final assets have expired.

====================

Writen on 2026-May-28

====================

The Science and Art of Love

The sudden rush of Eros fire,

With dopamine’s profound release,

That wakes the shadow of desire,

And strips away the quiet peace.

With Philia we build the frame,

Where Intimacy safely stands,

Where Passion fuels the warming flame,

And slowly binds our reaching hands.

But winter winds begin to blow,

When dopamine begins to wane,

Commitment carries hail and snow,

To test the structure in the rain.

Then oxytocin floods the soul,

Agape breaks the darkest night,

The broken pieces become whole,

And love declares its fearless might.

The raging river finds the sea,

And Pragma holds the steady beat,

A quiet, deep security,

That makes the harmony complete.

====================

Writen on 2026-May-29
====================

Listen here:

BALLAD for LAARNI

 My broken heart was filled with pain,

I prayed to God through falling rain.

"Please heal the wounds and end the ache,

And guide me for my future's sake."

A friend stepped in to match us two,

A simple text I sent to you.

We typed our secrets in the night,

Then set a date to see the light.

The spark was small when we first met,

No rushing tides or wild regret.

But slowly did the feelings grow,

In twenty ten we made it so.

Four years we walked a steady pace,

I found my home within your face.

In twenty fourteen we were wed,

To sacred vows our footsteps led.

The past had led me to your hand,

Exactly how the Lord had planned!

The wait was worth the steepest climb,

To witness now **God's perfect time!**

The soaring heights now come to rest,

Our quiet home is truly blest.

Our precious daughter makes us three,

A rooted, growing family.

No longer just a man and wife,

We step into this bright new life.

With joyful hearts and vision clear,

Our true beginning starts right here.

==========================

Writen on 2026-May-28

==========================

Listen here:

HOPE

​The ground we knew is gone,

And shadows fill the room.

We wait to see the dawn,

Beyond the heavy gloom.

​The heart has bled and cracked,

Beneath the sudden weight.

We look at what we lacked,

And face a fragile state.

​But breath remains within,

A quiet, steady beat.

We gather to begin,

And stand upon our feet.

​We do not mend right now,

Nor heal in just one day.

We make a steadfast vow,

To walk a better way.

​We trim the heavy grief,

And clear the tangled mind.

Each step brings sweet relief,

To leave the dark behind.

​A tear may softly fall,

When memories awake.

We learn to hold it all,

For our own spirit's sake.

​We build the ruins high,

With patient, gentle hands.

Beneath an open sky,

The strengthened pillar stands.

​The cracks let in the light,

To make the spirit whole.

The yield is calm and bright,

A harvest for the soul.

​The past is not erased,

But shapes the present view.

Through bitter storms we faced,

We made ourselves anew.

​Now hope outlasts the rain,

And wellness takes its place.

We grew from all the pain,

And found our lasting grace.

======================

Writen on 2026-May-28

======================

Listen here:

ALMOST IS JUST GOODBYE

​An almost yes is really just a no,

A half-spoke truth is nothing but a lie.

To nearly stay is just a long goodbye,

A sad "Hello" is just a heavy sigh.

​You never hate a passing stranger's face,

You only curse the one who claimed a space.

The deepest cuts are always made by care,

From cutting bonds the two of you had shared.

​We argue just to instigate a fight,

Because the heavy friction sparks a light.

We scream to make a broken promise right,

To keep a fading passion in our sight.

​The opposite of care is not a brawl,

It's just an empty silence in the hall.

You did not even bother with a call,

For you simply feel nothing left at all.

​You can only hate the one you love,

The opposite of like is indifference.

Almost is always just not enough,

Let's end things now and drop the pretense.

SONG VERSION:

The Value of a Human Life

 What is the value of a human life? What if it's measured in terms of how happy you are, how happy you make others, and how much you've contributed to the society starting from the day of your birth to the present which then be projected forward to your life expectancy? Do you think you're valuable?

What if you can sell your lifetime based on that valuation, fully or partially, will you sell it? If you sell it partially, how will you spend the remainder of your life, live by the moment with your money from the sale or would you rather work on increasing your value for the rest of your life hoping that you'll be remembered by the people you touched long after your death?

Now that's worth thinking about.

What's your worth? Is it dictated by you? Or, by others? Or, both? Or, neither? Is the world a better place with you in it or without?

Are you selfish? Or, selfless?

Why?

*****

NOTE:

Original posted in FB on 2026-May-07

*****

The Value of a Human Life (Original Version):

The Value of a Human Life:

FINAL VERSION:

Heart to Heart

The shortest distance from heart to heart is a straight line. Be direct and upfront with your thoughts and feelings. Don't make assumptions.

The toughest prison to break out of is the ones you make around yourself. It's the kind that goes wherever you go and never stops isolating you with your loneliness.

Rejection is painful but not as devastating compared to the things left unsaid. Speak your heart and mind -- if you get rejected, it's still better than a lifetime of "what ifs".

The only way out of the "it depends..." and "relative to what..." is a straight and real talk. Speak up and be honest to yourself because the toughest betrayal is the betrayal of one's self.

****

NOTE:

First posted in FB on 2026-May-07

****

THE DISTANCE (Original Version):

THE DISTANCE:

FINAL VERSION:

A Critique and Commentary to My Love

The audit of your heart, it’s overdue, 
I’ve checked the compliance of the things you do. 
You claim a love that’s built to last for years,
Yet your KPIs are mostly salted tears. 
I’ve indexed every promise that you made,
And watched the interest rate begin to fade.

Oh, my love, a masterclass in risk,
You keep the wreckage beautifully brisk. 
A failure mode that’s artfully designed,
To leave the best of me so far behind. 
I’m drafting up a formal, final brief,
To categorize this elegant, cold grief.

You talk of synergy and shared design, 
But keep the ledger strictly yours, not mine.
The variance is wide, the margin’s thin, 
I’m searching for the space where I fit in.
Your casual excuses are so well-refined, 
A Six Sigma standard for the unkind.

Is it efficiency, this way you pull away?
To optimize the silence of the day? 
I’ve run the data through a hundred times,
To justify the rhythm of these crimes. 
But even in the logic of the fall,
I find I haven't closed the file at all.

So here’s the summary, the final line:
Your love is flawed, and yet, somehow divine. 
I’ll keep the draft, the errors and the rust,
And file us under "Inevitably dust."

FINAL VERSION:

*****

NOTE:

This is a work I did stem from an idea and intentionally written to be a song lyrics.

I wrote this on 2026-May-23 in the City of Imus, Cavite, Philippines

****

Selfless Love

This is an error,

A variance we can’t correct. 

We built our lives on solid ground,

With every angle double-checked.

This is an anomaly

That doesn’t happen normally. 

This ends without a consequence...

If we just treat it as a fray.

You speak like we’re a problem to solve,

Like love is just a flaw in the design. 

You ran the numbers, drew your perfect grids,

But you never factored in this heart of mine.

Don’t shrink us down to logic and to loss!

Don’t frame this fire as something small! 

You mitigate the risk of getting hurt,

While I’m the one who has to take the fall.

What if we bend, but never break the frame?

What if we hide what we can never name? 

A shadow life, outside the public eye...

But a hidden truth is just a quiet lie.

We could exist where no one else can see,

Keep the margins safe, retain the vow. 

Trade daylight truth for borrowed, stolen peace,

And call it love... somehow.

I held the future like an architect.

Every pillar load-bearing and strong. 

You were the weight I didn’t anticipate.

The beautiful place where I belong.

I knew the cost before the start.

The love you gave was real... 

But it’s collateral damage to the heart.

And you know how that feels.

We chose to keep the others safe.

A silent sacrifice without a sound. 

There is mercy in the lines we drew.

In the end, what we had was true. 

Not every love is meant to stay...

Some have to go away.

I’ll carry what we didn't get to be...

I’ll carry you... in letting go. 

And past the friction of this quiet ache...

A brighter, stable life will start to grow. 

We didn’t fail...

We chose the whole.

FINAL VERSION:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE:

This is the first work I did that is not because of inspiration alone.  Rather, it stem from an idea and intentionally written to be a song lyrics.

I wrote this on 2026-May-23 in the City of Imus, Cavite, Philippines

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Real 2 Days and 1 Night Baler Aurora Trip From Balanga Bataan

Intro:

Why am I saying that this is "The Real" 2 Days and 1 Night trip?  We'll, because this has no Day Zero.  The travel itself is part of the adventure that we had.


The Planning:

We'll, we used Google Map to get our direction loaded in an i-Phone and using GLOBE Telcom unli-Data plan for the mobile signal.  

For our ride, we used Ford Trecker 4X2.

Initial budget set was 3000 pesos less the fuel charge.  

This trip was not supposed to be an adventure but rather just a road trip.  

Our planned itinerary as prepared by my trusty friend JCC:

Day 1:

As planned, we just follow what Google Map directed us to take.  As seen in below.

Rather than the 3+ hours estimated travel time, we ended up with 6.5 hours.  Yes, it was a short distance to travel, but if your travel at 10-20 kph in the mountains of Sierra Madre (cross 2 rivers through dirt road, mud, damaged road with lots of traces of landslide you'll probably do what we did after reaching Baler - went inside the Church and prayed to thank God we're still alive).  See some of the pictures we've managed to take after summing up the courage to do so.

My advice, don't take Nueva Ecija - Aurora Road.  Ensure that the route you take passes by Pantabangan through the dam with lots of humps, okay?

We'll, after surviving that ride, we were able to arrived in Baler safely at around 3:30pm after leaving Balanga Bataan at 8:00am.  Although we had a short stop over in Cabanatuan to take some snack time, at 3:30pm after that stressful road, we were damn hungry.  Even so, our first stop has to be the Church to pray to thank God we made it.  Had the conditions been something else, I'm quite sure we'd fell off one of  the cliffs we passed through.  By the way, when you entered the heart of Sierra Madre, you can forget about GPS - not a single mobile signal from any of the providers.

On our way to the take our lunch in the Rolling stores; we passed by Baler Park.  Oh, yeah, Dona Aurora's house is also along the way.

While in the rolling store, we asked the owner which was the right route to take in going to Baler, as we've thought, we took the wrong one.

Off we went to our Hotel booked through Agoda.  People were nice and helpful.  Nice view of the beach as well.  Its a just a walk away from Sabang too.  Sadly, we had no time to Surf after going through our target sites.

Around 4:30pm, we decided to salvage what is left of our Day 1 time and went straight to Ermita Hill and Diguisit Islet, Beach, and Falls.

It was dark when we decided to take our dinner at Bay's Inn.  It took an hour to prepare our food but that typical and expected.  It was filling.

Closing our night was some Emperador Deluxe and Coke in one of the Bahay Kubo of our accommodation.  Day 1 ended at 12:00am of Day 2.


Day 2:

Day 2 started at around 5:30am, at least for me, not so with my friends, they were the ones who awoke with my alarms (as in 3 mobile phone giving off noise all at the same time) at 5:00am.  I think they've had enough with the noise and woke me at 5:30am.  I went straight to the beach to enjoy the early morning view.  It was nice.

Breakfast was served at 7:00am and we head off to Balete Park at around 9:00am

Off to Caunayan falls (another set of rough road but at least passable by vehicle).  We met some random tourist here, we weren't able to get their names or contact numbers (call us torpe, shy, or stupid then) - as you said ms. Girl in blue, post it anywhere, here's the closest thing that I can think of with that remark.

Then to Mother falls (the trek was worth it, trust me, but you should were something that can be worn comfortably even when wet and dries up easily) which requires around 3 km or 6 km trek back and forth depending which parking you leave your vehicle or if you decide to take a tricycle ride.

Lunch was at 3:00pm in one of the Gerry Shan's Place, its an eat-all-you can resto.  However, at 3:00pm, what can you possibly expect, right?  Its supposed to be lunch and not an afternoon snack.

Back to our hotel at 4:00pm then left around 5:00pm this time via Pantabangan (no more adventure trip).  Quick stop over at Vicenticos Bar and Restuarant, Cabanatuan City.

Arrived in my house at 11:45PM of Day 2.  Extremely exhausted with body pains all over but smiling happily.  

Though scary at times but the trip was all worth it.