You’ve likely heard the story about the little boy digging feverishly through a pile of straw and manure. Someone asked why he was so excited. “Because there must be a pony in there somewhere,” he said, beaming.

You may have felt like you were staring at a straw and manure pile in mid-March, when the world as we knew it shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic. How did that little boy find all that enthusiasm to keep digging?

As light emerges at the end of the tunnel, are there positives to take away from this experience? If you look hard enough, you will find some. Here’s my list. Add your own.

Time to read. I enjoy spy thrillers, and I’m into my 10th Tom Clancy novel since late last year. My reading picked up when there were no longer basketball games to watch. I’ve spent more time studying the Bible and reading a book that explains the Bible. No doubt that’s more instructive than spy novels.

Enjoy the grandkids. Yes, this one cuts both ways. Some funny one-liners relate to parents learning what it’s like to be home with their kids — especially assisting them with e-learning. Whoever first put on Facebook “It was the first day of e-learning, and one of my kids was suspended and the other was flunking, all before noon” should go into comedy.

Yet the extra time at home has given parents a chance to interact with their kids. It’s provided more face-to-face time, and a chance to play board games and enjoy each other’s company.

Kids discover the outdoors. Our grandkids found they could play outside with no tablets and no TV. They discovered the joys of figuring out how to set up empty Coke cans as targets for a BB gun, and they’ve spent hours driving their electric-motorized toys, which sat idle most of last year.

Life goes on without sports. The first couple of weeks without college basketball left many of us lost. By now, it is obvious that life goes on without sports. I’m not knocking the value of playing or watching sports, but maybe spending time without it has helped show us just how big of a business, rather than just entertainment, it’s become.    

Time with animals. Hopefully, there will be county 4-H fairs and the state fair. If not, there will be some of the best-trained animals, all dressed up with nowhere to go, that you could ever imagine. Extra time meant our grandson, Graham, had his four yearling ewes, a young ram and a wether nearly show ready before Easter! He has spent more time with his animals already this year than all of last year. He’s likely not the only one.

Rekindle friendships. People have picked up their cellphones and called neighbors, just to see how they’re doing. If an elderly neighbor needs milk or bread, someone has it on their porch quickly. Why don’t we do that all the time?

Fewer meetings. We’ve been able to accomplish some of these things because we couldn’t go to meetings. Calendars were wiped clean. We found other ways to conduct business. Meetings can be essential, but sometimes, do we meet just to be meeting? Could some of that time be better spent elsewhere? Expect those questions to be asked as life revs up again.

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