“What are you going to write about today?” 

That was the question friends just asked me as we finished up our mostly-weekly Zoom check-in call.  I admitted that I really didn’t know yet.  One friend said, “But didn’t you do the “two good things of the day” at supper with the family?” 

Yes, I said, we did… but that is not the same as finding things for “Silver Lining”.  Two good things is not as hard.  You just have to reflect back on the day, and figure out what two things happened to you that were good.  It’s not terribly difficult, although there are some days when each of us says something like, “Nothing really happened today.”  Then, of course, it requires a bit more thought.  (And, if were completely truthful, the answer that eventually comes out is often the kids’ throwback:  lunch and dinner.) 

But finding the “silver lining” is harder.  It’s something that would not have happened if we were not in our current COVID-19 world.  And it’s not even just “something”—it has to be a “good something”. 

One friend thought for just a moment before she said, “Well, there is this call!  That’s a silver lining.” 

Yes, I said again… but I already wrote about that.  It has to be unique, every day.  (And my thought at that point was, “Really?  Isn’t this your game, and you get to call the rules?  What does it matter if it is a repeat? What are you trying to prove?”)

And then I realized that the whole question is, in fact, a “silver lining”. 

Back in normal-land, oh-so-long ago, we friends didn’t talk about finding silver linings.  We weren’t looking for them.  We didn’t think we needed to find good things out of a bad situation (or at least not too often—certainly not every day). 

Changing our collective outlook?  Being more aware of how we react to whatever life throws our way?  Looking for what might be good out of the mundane, the annoying, the ugly, the bad?

That’s our collective silver lining today.  (And thanks, friends, for helping me find it!)