Searching for Balance: from Manila to New Zealand
Contributed by a Recordio creator from the Philippines
STORIES | 28 Jan 206 | 3-min read
My whole life has felt like a long search for balance.
I grew up in busy Manila, Philippines, where balance often meant learning how to carve out space in the middle of noise and motion. I balanced school with my creative hobbies like drawing and cooking. I rode my bike everywhere, learning balance in the most literal way as I grew out of training wheels. At home, I learned another kind of balance trying to find quiet moments in a loud house, as the middle child of five brothers and sisters.
Years later, I became a professional chef. In the kitchen, balance meant flavors and timing. In life, it meant juggling responsibility as a single mother. Looking back, balance has always been something I worked toward, even when I didn’t realize it.
Over the past three years, I’ve become more aware of this than ever.
Last year, I traveled to New Zealand and met an amazing man who showed me what balance can look like in everyday life. His home in Hamilton, New Zealand felt like a different universe from Manila. It was quieter, greener, and shaped by decades of thoughtful urban planning. Back home, we compete for space whether it be on the streets, on the train, everywhere. Finding nature often means traveling far just to breathe.
In New Zealand, decades of thoughtful planning have made it easy for people to live alongside trees and green spaces. This is clear in my partner’s garden, filled with Fiji apples and all kinds of vegetables. I soon learned this isn’t unusual there. Many homes have gardens, and neighbors freely share fruit and visit each other’s spaces. It’s a simple, generous way of living that feels almost unreal to someone who grew up on Manila’s crowded streets.
It made me wonder – does peace depend on where you live? Maybe it does. My son and I hope to make this place our home someday. But I’ve also learned that finding peace in everyday life isn’t something you arrive at once and keep forever. It’s something you practice, again and again, over time.
Thankfully, life doesn’t demand that we figure everything out. It only asks us to be present and to notice the small things that make life meaningful.
Using Recordio, I captured short clips of this garden including quiet moments, leaves moving, fruit growing etc. Capturing those small moments helps me return to that feeling. Now I can revisit them whenever I want, and share the memory with others when it feels right.
Not to show off, but to pass along a bit of the calm and joy I felt in those moments. If you’re reading this, I encourage you to find peace in your own small corner of the world, whatever that looks like for you.
And don’t forget to live fully, right where you are.
The author chose not to be named. She and her son hope to move to New Zealand and share more moments of peace through Recordio.
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