One of the most beautiful words in the Tagalog language is the word for "job" or "work", which is "hanapbuhay". The word is a combination of two more Tagalog words: "hanap", which means to search, and "buhay", which means life.

"Hanapbuhay" in Baybayin


In a world that struggles to get its grip on the work-life balance conundrum, "hanapbuhay" serves to remind us that at the core of it all is the search to give life and, perhaps, to give it meaning thru the work that we do.

May your work lead you to find life and its meaning.

Above is a photo of how "hanapbuhay" would be written in Baybayin script, a pre-colonial writing system Filipinos used and continues to be quite popular in the tattoo community.