Has the pandemic wrought any positive changes?

Looking at what the pandemic has brought, it has brought pain, death to many and tragic loss to families, isolation of those needing human touch.  Still, there is a silver lining that emerges from all the dark clouds of adversity in life and I sat back this morning to see if I could peg a few that have appeared in my world.

• I think it brought the end of the Trump Presidency.  I know some will be offended by me seeing that as positive, but so be it.  We all have to stand somewhere.
• Patience, for all else would be futile negativity.  It's amazing what you can develop, sometimes against your own nature, when there is no good alternative.  Some have chosen to stay impatient and declare their freedom in the face of this ... at the significant risk not just to themselves, but to others.  I turn my back on their selfishness.
• Reflection and time to consider with little interference.  With nothing filling your day, activity and tasks to accomplish, it becomes much more easy to reflect.  The alternative is vegetation and some of that has crept into place I will admit.  However, some who never reflected and turned everything into action in the past have shown me more depth in our conversations.  That is a good thing!
• What time I have left is more treasured, for I have a more tangible sense of its limit.  Each week now goes by in a blur.  It's Thursday again already?  Time to write my blog again?  It seems so accelerated and that makes each moment more to be treasured.  I'm not a spring chicken.
• Values have become more defined in society, priorities chosen.  The gauntlet is thrown down, the challenge has to be accepted or denied.  This has given us a taste of our strengths and our weaknesses.  We must recognize and answer the challenge.  Life and society have meaning.
• New disease fighting technology has come forth.  mRNA technology has been thrust into the limelight and has the chance for a test scenario seldom offered.  It means that tools to battle illness in rapid response is available and the door is just opening.  I know many fear change and medical power, but the future always surges into our present in this manner.  I happen to think it has very real pluses.
• It is my nature to look within.  Some of my friends less given to that have been shepherded to it and that has enhanced our kinship like I alluded to above.  The pandemic has also given us time to more thoroughly discuss what we think, what we feel, directions and values we see, share and hone together.
• You don't know what you've got til it's gone.  I've temporarily lost my freedom.  I treasure it more and value its return, but, as opposed to those who have used it as an excuse, I value its return with integrity, caring and sharing in charitable ways.
• I've developed a new appreciation of the domestic and found simpler pleasure in mundane activities I never slowed down to before.  When I was making the bed this morning, I enjoyed it!  I like a clean house and trimmed landscape and maintenance in ways I've never appreciated before.
• I've begun adjustment to retirement.  I worked til 70 and my wife worked until the pandemic forced earlier retirement this past year.  Seeing one another's faces, along with my daughter and son-in-law, day after day requires adjustment, refocus and compromise.  I now am learning a more immediate responsibility for the enhancement of their worlds, their experience.  I am learning a new negotiation and dialogue on a daily basis.  I am learning how to be with a person and separate from a person all in the same house.  I am learning tolerance.
• A sunny day brightens my spirits more than before.  Something in me is simpler, more direct.  Zen.

These are some of the things that occur to me as I think about the positives, the life growth, brought about by the pandemic.  Let's see what Ramana and Chuck the Shackman find positive at their blogs.  And a thanks to Chuck for bringing this to our trio for consideration!

Ramana
Shackman