Yesterday I sat for a little under an hour at my dining room table and watched my son and my niece work a huge LEGO project. A Parisian cafe with thousands of pieces that will fit into a city scene my son has been building for years. I watched them sort pieces by kind and by size, and I watched him teach her about “the books” – those multi-pages items that tell you how to put the pieces together so that you actually end up with a Parisian cafe. It is architecture and engineering with bound edges and slick paper.
I sat there soaking up every little piece of their back-and-forth. Her questions and his gentle answers. His watching her get excited and her looking quickly to him with a smile in her eyes as she completed a big area.
And I sat there thinking about what I was going to do to the dining room after Dakota leaves for school in two weeks. What would be leaving us (the piano) and what I would miss (his impromptu playing). (He isn’t taking the upright piano. I’m just getting rid of it.)
I have labeled this mental activity “The Itch and The Dread,” and I have been building comparisons in my mind for more than a few days. I am itching to make changes to my life and surroundings, and I am dreading his departure from our home.
In general:
- I am itching to clean his room with him next week, and I am dreading entering it without him while he is in New Jersey.
- I am itching to move the kitchen table out, and I am dreading our first meal at the new table without him.
- I am itching for the freedom that comes with no school schedule, and I am dreading how I will feel without limitations set by a young person.
- I am itching for the silences I crave at my writing desk at home, and I am dreading the quiet he will leave in every room.
The Itch and The Dread. It continues.