Saturday, May 27, 2006

on work and vocation

one of the beauties of our local language is how descriptive and deep it can be. take the tagalog translation for "work" for instance.

"work" can be translated into "trabaho" which connotes its being menial and burdensome.

then there is "hanapbuhay" (ha-nap-boo-high) which could literally be translated as "looking (hanap) for life (buhay)." in this translation, "work" is more sustaining... it gives you life, not the means to live, but LIFE. otherwise, it should have been termed as "hanap-pera" (looking for money).

and there lies all the difference in why people work. some do it as a means to put food on the table, pay the bills and sustain a lifestyle. then there are those who answer God's call to work as He as mapped it out in the Book of Life that He Himself authored. these people who work with the passion to serve not only get the food on the table and pay the bills, they gain the peace in knowing that they are doing what the Lord put them on this earth to do. the pay may not be great (it may not even exist - ask the homemakers), but these are the people who both LIVE life and GIVE life.

so, nagta-trabaho ka lang ba o naghahanapbuhay? (which work do you do?)

3 comments:

mama_aly said...

the thing about giving life (at least for mothers) is that it takes a lot of dying to self. and always, always, always, the life that emerges out of dying first is that which makes the dying worthwhile.

freckle-face said...

pareho... minsan pakiramdam ko nagtratrabaho lang, minsan naman, naghahanap-buhay.

freckle-face said...

at napansin ko, depende yon kung nakapagdasal ako nang mabuti bago mag-umpisa ng araw ko sa ospital...