As war is raging between Russia and Ukraine (sending prayers for peace), the rest of the world recovers from the war against COVID-19. The pandemic left us reeling from isolation, limitation of movement, and forced adaptation of technology to move forward with transactions and engagements. Still, we should count our blessings because many of our loved ones did not survive. The John Hopkins University and Medicine COVID-19 Resource Center reports a total of 5.9 million COVID-19 deaths over 442 million reported cases. DOH COVID-19 Tracker Nationwide Cases Data notes 56,538 deaths over 3,664,905 reported cases in the Philippines as of writing. At the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, we've lost 1,220 patients due to COVID-19 pneumonia over 5,140 COVID-19 admissions. We realize how precious life is and how this life can end at the blink of an eye.
This is the time to seize the day and suck the marrow out of life. CARPE DIEM! As we learn to LIVE with COVID-19 in the new normal, we need to grab each opportunity to express our love to our loved ones. When was the last time you said "I love you" and heard these words from someone? When was the last time you gave a simple gift or provided a small act of service or spent quality time with someone special to you? March is National Women's Month and one thing women can teach the world is how to express love to our loved ones as mothers, wives, aunts, daughters, sisters and as family and friends.
Searching through the internet, I found a book written by Gary Chapman on The Five Love Languages. I was curious as there were so many youtube videos on this topic The 5 Love Languages Explained. As nicely illustrated, the Five Love Languages include (1) words of affirmation, (2) physical touch, (3) receiving gifts, (4) quality time and (5) acts of service.
This topic was so interesting to us that we allotted one KAAMBAG webinar session to discuss this among different healthcare workers in our hospital to get their inputs on love languages. It seems that the way we love is learned from experiences stemming from our childhood, and that scars we get from hurtful words become beautiful when we allow ourselves to grow and shape how we express love to others.
T1. During the COVID19 pandemic, did you have any regrets about failing to express your love?
T2. Among the five (5) love languages, how do you express love to your loved ones? Conversely, in what ways have you been hurt the most?
T3. What should you do to improve how you express your love?
