The Next Dimension

I saw this next chapter coming, but couldn't anticipate how our world would change. We stepped through a doorway into another dimension last week, sending May off to full-day kindergarten. It's been five years since we turned a page and found ourselves parents. The intensity of that change could have never been foretold by veteran parents. And it was when she announced her early arrival 11 days prior to her due date when we recognized the gravity of the new story which was about to be written. Someone would be needing us around the clock for quite some time.
And so we recalibrated the pace of our life for this wee one. Our farm would first and foremost be a place for this child to grow and be introduced to life here in this wild world...and secondly it would provide for that life. This was new. Farm enterprises and ideas had driven our days up to this point and all the way through my third trimester with May. This was what we wanted...to be home as a family on a piece of land...farming as time allowed. And any parent could guess that the amount of time we spent in the field was reduced greatly. We knocked honeybees, pastured chicken, and woodland pork off of our list. Recalibration complete, or so I thought. Over time, I would also evict catering and cooking classes from our plot. As it turns out, young kids desire and deserve more of my time than I expected.
Jack joined the crew, enriching the narrative in ways familiar, but also in ways novel. Sibling territory was discovered and all the sudden we felt like a missing puzzle piece had presented himself. But this...this fledging from the farm and home, it truly feels we have reached a new dimension. We are all changing...together. May is immersing herself in new waters, sharing her spirit with the greater world and drinking in new ideas and personalities. Exposure is so special, and I'm thrilled her hungry brain and heart can relish the learning and the growth that we alone can't offer her. So, my heart, be calm and trust that she will take the good with the bad that come when you swim up the channel and enter the great unknown.
And what about the three of us...chopped liver at home missing our fourth? We are getting sublime one-on-one time with Jack. This is an opportunity he hasn't had and I'm happy to humor his whims and have him chasing after me in the hoop, collecting pints of just-ripened cherry tomatoes. "Oops mom, I dropped it. It's otay mom! I will get more!" :). But if I gleaned anything from the last chapter, I know I better drink this up like it's my last glass. This precious time, when we get to have him while the sun travels the sky and dips down low. Our sweet Jack, right on May's heels, just trying to keep up with her. Don't rush, Jack. Soon enough I'll be checking the time to see if you are eating lunch three miles down the road in the lunch room surrounded by all those lucky souls who get to have you from 9-3:20. And one day...I won't even have you from 3:20 to bedtime like I do now.
All of the sudden, it's coming into focus...just like those veteran parents understand so well. Enjoy it, damn it. It's all over before you know it. These sweet chapters read faster than any I've read so far...they are just written too well...you can't slow them. And one day I'll seek solace in my beekeeping, a pleasure I've put aside for now to make room for changing diapers and making lunches and building Magnatile kingdoms. I'll tune into it, enjoying the calming of the smoker, distracting myself from the nostalgia and the longing for these days when all four of us were at home writing the story together.