Californians Share Their Pandemic Silver Linings, Four Years After Lockdowns

As you well know, the pandemic brought so much disruption and tragedy into our lives. Many of us are still grappling with all of the changes it wrought.

But recently some of you have been telling me about small ways that the pandemic shifted your thinking for the better, or introduced a new joy into your life. I adopted a small and sickly kitten in 2020, something I wouldn’t have been able to do if I weren’t working at home because of lockdowns. In June, my cat and I will have spent four (wonderful) years together.

Feel free to email me your own pandemic silver lining story at CAtoday@nytimes.com. Please include your full name and the city where you live.

Here are some of your submissions, lightly edited and condensed for clarity:

“Prior to the pandemic, my husband and I were up and out of the house early for work, with a nanny here to be with our 6-month-old daughter by 7:30 a.m. each day. During the stay-at-home orders, we realized how amazing it was to slow our mornings down and have breakfast together. We now have a 4 ½ year old, with whom we eat breakfast every single morning. We’re just as productive at work, and we wouldn’t trade that time for the world.” — Nicole Hakim, Newport Beach

“I fell in love during the pandemic! The world was shut down so I had all the time in the world to message someone about the ways we were trying to safely get outside and enjoy the spring weather. Spring faded to summer and by then we were exploring all the open natural areas between Sacramento and the Bay Area together. Four years later, we’re still finding new places to hike and embarking on lots of other adventures together!” — Allison Kustic, Sacramento

“When we hadn’t seen our granddaughters in a long time, we decided to have Zoom calls, like so many did. But we added a twist and created puppet shows for them. I built stages and props for some animal puppets we had, and we even created costumes for them. The best part of all this was that I recorded the shows on Zoom. Now they are a treasure chest of silver, capturing several months of toddler life when everything seemed so boring.” — Dave Scott, Saratoga