I am grateful for:
- The peace and quiet of home. When you're an introvert, you always feel like you should be getting out of the house. Permission to just stay home and soak up the goodness of quiet time is an unexpected boon.
- All the research and work I did to understand personal finance over the past 5-6 years. The market may be heaving like a storm at sea, but I am calm, because I got our AA set up in a comfortable and conservative way. I'm newly FIREd, but I still have peace of mind.
- A nice neighborhood to walk the dog in, with respectful neighbors who understand the need for social distancing.
- InstaCart. It may seem non-Mustachian, but given that spouse & I are both relatively high risk, it's a worthwhile strategic investment in our ongoing health.
- My health. I have friends who've been sick, friends who are sick now, and one friend who has been sick in a variety of exciting ways since early March. This virus is brutal. I am grateful that, so far, we've been spared.
- The ability to connect online via social media. It's not the same as in-person, but lockdown would be so much more painful without it. If this pandemic had hit in the 1980s, or even the 1990s, this experience would be entirely different, much more isolating.
- A relatively low-maintenance lifestyle, which means on those days when external stressors get to me too much, it's okay for me to take it easy.
Life could be a lot worse than this. Knock wood, since, at any time, it could become a lot worse than this.