All I see is magic.

A few months ago, I wrote about how I didn’t want to farm when I visited Apricot Lane Farm. Now I feel like a slap on the face. Farm will be part of my life now, one way or another. But it feels right this time.

Maybe I could break down what happened in the future, but here is the short version:

Ruya’s husband Sam bought a regenerative 20-acre farm in Moorpark, the same place as Apricot Lane Farm. I was then invited to the farm opening party. I ran into Ryland, who is the previous owner, and learned a few hours ago it was he who sold the farm to Sam. The world is so tiny. But more preciously, the circle of people who have done things the right way is tiny. “Of course it was Ryland!” I thought in my head when I found out.

Ryland was surprised to find me there and invited me to the film special screening of Common Ground in the original Oscar theater. I went to Common Ground with my mom. It was a very special experience. Feeling all of a sudden hopeful about the earth.

Now, I want to talk about something completely different.

Story of Seasons, which is my favorite GBA game, it is a farming game. I only watched kids playing because my family would never buy me a game console. Then, after college, I watched a game recording of this with my sister.

Watching the first few episodes was filled with excitement, and I kept playing back because I didn’t want to miss any details. People’s bullet comments also showered the screen; it was so fun.

A few episodes and (literal) seasons later, he has mastered making the most profit on his rectangular farmland, which is growing pineapple. He figured out the most cost-effective gifts to dump on the girl daily so she would marry him with time (by the way, the girl was also calculated to be the most cost-effective to marry). He hacked every dog or horse race and the exact spot to harvest the most precious resources at any given time or spot.

Then, the gamer started to speed up the recording later in the game. Because there is so much repetition now. The discovery is less and less. As a viewer, I also lost interest in the show and didn’t even care to watch him marry the Water Godness, which is the ultimate achievement of this game (both on the dating and farming level).

In Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks that I am reading, he talked about the known fact that when we grow older, time also goes by faster.

And here I am, thinking about time again. How precious it is to have unknown. Behind that unknown is to be discovered and the threat that we might lose part of our current selves, whatever that is. The more we discover, the less unknown we have (or the unknown on our bucket list), the less threatening life is, and the less we also seem to pay attention. That period when everything is young and fresh and filled with discovery is when we feel time is the longest ever because we pay our most precious attention to every detail and, in return, harvest memories.

That’s the magic I am talking about. So many unknowns around me at this time of my life, and so much yet to discover. And when I am older, I will look back at this world, and all I see is magic.