One reason children are capable of joy is because they take almost nothing for granted. To them, the world is wonderfully new and surprising. Not only that, but they aren’t yet sure how the world works: Perhaps the things they have today will mysteriously vanish tomorrow. It is hard for them to take something for granted when they can’t even count on its continued existence. But as children grow older, they grow jaded. By the time they are teenagers, they are likely to take almost everything and everyone around them for granted.
– A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy
These are particularly apt times to reflect on this, as and when mental bandwidth allows.
At the end of all this, we’ll have lost people, norms, rituals, relationships, some of which we’ll have taken for granted. We’ll also have made new relationships with people, ideas, places, organisations. We’d do well to acknowledge their impermanence, for good or for bad.