This coming week we will cross the one-year mark of living through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Our last trip was to Florida in December 2019. That seems like several lifetimes ago.

I am grateful that my family is healthy.

I am grateful that I am still gainfully employed. Like many real estate agents, I am busier than ever.

Pandemic Life:

I now walk more than I drive.

We get our groceries delivered.

I now work from home.

I am reading more.

I am writing more.

I started a YouTube Channel.

I am listening to more music, mostly country and folk.

I am watching more PGA golf and NHL hockey.

I got an Xbox Series X (my first gaming console in over 40 years) and started racing on Dirty Rally 2.0.

Just before the pandemic, I read Viktor Frankl's book Man's Search For Meaning (1946), which chronicles his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. I have thought about Frankl's book many times during the pandemic. What he lived through – and so many did not – is harrowing.

Yes, pandemic life is challenging.

I miss seeing people.

I miss dining out.

I miss traveling.

Lucky me.

This, too, shall pass. Everything does. Including each of us!

I am so much more grateful now for certain basic realities.

The pandemic has afforded me the opportunity to be a better version of myself.

Opportunity seized.

More time without inputs.

More time to marvel at everyday magic:

- The sound of the wind in the trees.

- The sight of fresh fallen snow.

- The heat of the sun after several days without seeing it.

More gratitude.

Thankful.

Taking very little for granted.