What pandemic-inspired modifications in your life will not go away even when or when COVID-19 does?

With all the talk of “post-COVID life” or the like, the coronavirus pandemic remains with us very much. It is premature to speak of its end. But we do know something about how our lives have already changed, and maybe a sense of what new or ongoing changes we can plan for once the pandemic is really over.

It can be huge or tiny. Too many of us have been very sick or lost loved ones, or both. Too many of us have lost our jobs or live with the fear of going to unsafe jobs every day. We have all come to terms with the surreal nature of life due to a global pandemic, from the stage of sanitizing your food to schools trying to bypass the definition of close contact as 15 minutes of exposure within 6 feet of having kids stand up and walk around the room every 12 to 14 minutes. The children came home from school one day and didn’t see their friends for months. We have developed opinions on the most effective and / or comfortable masks.

So when, 15 months later, you assess the changes in your life that could continue after the pandemic – whenever we can really say it has ended – what do you notice? Small or big, sad or funny.

I go with a little one: When I was growing up, I often heard or read about grandparents who were so depressed that they never threw anything away. Nowadays I look at my pantry – still a year after the food shortage subsided and stocked with extras of non-perishable items – and wonder if I’ll be waiting bottles of olive oil and tamari in the pantry in a decade when my grandchildren should which have) will roll their eyes at this historical peculiarity when extras should always be included Cliché of the COVID-19 generation.

What about you?