Galaw ((link)) May 2026

When something breaks, your first instinct should be subukan (to try). Not to call a repairman. Not to buy a new one. Move your hands. Take the screwdriver. You might fail. But ang galaw (the movement) is the point. Galaw as Love Here is the most important part. We often think of love as a feeling. Nararamdaman (felt). But in the trenches of a relationship, love is galaw .

We are born with Galaw . Watch a toddler in a provincial fiesta . They don’t need a lesson plan. Their hips move because the drums are loud. Their hands clap because the air is happy. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, we freeze. We become matigas ang katawan (stiff-bodied). We trade the fluidity of galaw for the rigidity of routine. There is an unwritten rule in Filipino psychology that I call the Tatlong Segundo (Three Second) rule of Galaw . When something breaks, your first instinct should be

Galaw is the subtle sway of a jeepney driver’s shoulders as he navigates a pothole. It is the sabay (the groove) of a group of kids playing patintero in a dusty alley. It is the involuntary tapping of a finger against a wooden table when someone starts humming an Eraserheads song. Move your hands

Before you touch your phone in the morning, move. Literally. Stretch your arms over your head like you are trying to grab the electric fan. Roll your neck. Kick your legs. Tell your nervous system: “Gising na. Gagalaw tayo.” (Wake up. We are going to move.) But ang galaw (the movement) is the point

The most resilient Filipinos I know don't overthink. They gumalaw . When Typhoon Odette hit, the communities that recovered fastest weren't the ones with the best government aid packages. They were the ones where one lolo stood up, grabbed a bolo, and started clearing a tree. Within ten minutes, ten people were moving. Within an hour, the whole street was moving.

When a problem arrives—a leaking roof, a family argument, a financial shortfall—you have exactly three seconds to move. If you sit still for longer than three seconds, panic sets in . The kaba (anxiety) calcifies into tamad (laziness) or takot (fear).