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 [email protected]. 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

“Early on in the pandemic, my husband, Michael, and I started playing cards every night after dinner. The two of us, married 30 years, generally have lots to talk about, but the well ran dry sometimes during the months of lockdown. We played Spite, Malice and Kings Corner for about an hour each night. We still do. We clear our plates, bring out the cards and the notebook we keep scores in. There is a pleasure in this connecting (even though Michael hates to lose and I never, never let him win), and a remembering of what we’ve been through, and that it wasn’t all bad.” — Marianne Lonsdale, Oakland

And before you go, some good news

As the spring season arrives and flowers blossom on trees, in gardens and on hillsides across the state, consider swapping out store-bought bouquets — which are often grown with large amounts of fertilizer and are sometimes imported — for floral arrangements you can grow yourself.

Jeanette Marantos, of The Los Angeles Times, recently published a guide to creating floral bouquets using native plants you can grow in your backyard.

Marantos spoke with Linda Prendergast, who designs arrangements as part of a volunteer group at the California Botanic Garden, about the best native flowers to use in a bouquet, as well as how best to trim, arrange and maintain the flowers once they’re in a vase. Pendergast recommends peachy-hued apricot mallows, California buttercups and desert marigolds for starters, but many other sustainable options can also make for a fragrant and colorful floral assortment.

Read all of her suggestions and learn more about how to make a stylish bouquet here.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Soumya

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword.

Maia Coleman, Briana Scalia and Sofia Poznansky contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].

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