24 Month Milestone

Drum roll, please… Today marks my 731st consecutive Rosslyn Redux daily update. Two years. 24 months. 200% of my original goal. Blogging every single day. Deep-diving into my relationship (and sometimes *our* relationship) with Rosslyn.

Although my 22 month milestone post was the most recent “old house journaling” update, there have been others along the winding way. Here’s a quick recap (with source links back to the original posts).

• Yesterday marked ten weeks of old house journaling. Every. Single. Day. Two months and ten days back at the helm of this wayward, meandering, sometimes unruly experiment I call Rosslyn Redux… I’ve wanted to share this story forever, variously started to share this story forever, and want forever to figure out if it’s even possible to gather and trim-trim-trim all of this unruly mess into a story with an ending. Yes, an actual conclusion. Happily ever after… (Source: Old House Journaling)
• Bringing fresh vision and scrutiny to Rosslyn Redux has invigorated me beyond all expectations. My mission is 100% clear. My timeline and deadlines and expectations? All clear. (Source: Why Reboot Rosslyn Redux?!?!)
• One new installment every 24-hours without fail. Rhapsodizing Rosslyn, celebrating our team’s accomplishments, soapboxing historic rehab and adaptive reuse, showcasing seasonality snapshots and historic Essex memorabilia, weaving in some hyperlocal haiku and place-based poetry, illuminating the mercurial transition / transformation we’re currently navigating, and sharing boathouse and icehouse updates, intriguing artifacts, and wildlife observations. Call it a 184-day streak. Or call it dogged determination. Either way I have 181 days to go until I reach my goal. (Source: Midpoint Milestone: 6 Months Down, 6 Months to Go)
• This is my 243rd Rosslyn update in daily succession. It completes an 8-month streak of daily old house journaling, the 2/3 mark in my quest to post every day for one year…. With four months to go, I’d say this vision is still accurate, but the “mercurial transition / transformation we’re currently navigating” has received short shrift. (Source: 66% Done, 33% To Go)
• Eureka! A year ago I set out on a personal quest to post an update each day without fail for one year, journaling deep into our Rosslyn story in the hopes of ascertaining what comes next. Today we celebrate 365 consecutive daily updates… (Source: One Year of Daily Journaling!)
• I anticipated entering into a thoughtful, protracted, and in depth conversation with Susan and Rosslyn about home and “homeness”; a meditation on my relationship with a property that I’d originally envisioned as a 2-4 year rehab; and a catalyst for transformation — transforming my relationship with Rosslyn, in particular, and my relationship with home, in general, while attempting to let go and move on. (Source: Mission MMXXIV)
• The big benchmark that I’m celebrating this evening is that yesterday’s post marks the end of 18 months of daily old house journaling. That’s 549 posts in a row. It’s not a world record, but it’s a personal accomplishment. (Source: Eighteen Months)
• Now 20-1/2 months — 626 days of reflective, inquisitive, whimsical, experimental old house journaling — into my Rosslyn Redux reboot, let’s turn again to the underlying question: what’s my holy grail? (Source: Holy Grail & Daily Discourse)
• Sunrise around the corner did not become a blog post then, but reviewed two years later, from the vantage of an immensely satisfying two years of daily Rosslyn blogging that began on August 1, 2022, augurs remarkably prescient. (Source: Sunrise Around the Corner)
• What an adventure it’s been since setting sail on a 12 month challenge to think and write about Rosslyn every… single day. No skips. No excuses. No delays. And, as of today, it’s been 22 months. That’s 183% of my original goal on August 1, 2022. Today I’d like to commemorate this 22 month milestone with a commitment to two more months of daily deep-dives into my relationship with our home and a promise to announce big news on August 1, 2024. (Source: 22 Month Milestone)

It’s been a slow-and-steady marathon, a questioning quest with an occasionally elusive and ever evolving objective. And now it’s time to take inventory. Where have I arrived? What conclusions?

Milestones & Overshoot

As I reflect on my initial 365 day goal, my reluctance to curtail the quest after a year, and my decision to double down for a second year, I marvel at my confidence that this half-baked endeavor would render meaningful results.

An essay in the broadest and most inclusive sense. An attempt to explore through a process of daily writing practice my complex feelings about Rosslyn and our relationship with the property. A slow, persistent contemplation of Rosslyn past and future. Serial creative experimentation in the hopes of working through a nearly two-decade journey with the historic property on Lake Champlain that Susan and I purchased and rehabilitated. A celebration of the stories, relationships, and lifestyle that germinated through and because of Rosslyn. An inquiry into my deep connection to Rosslyn, more than just a home, a sanctuary that has nurtured us through personal losses and struggles like the COVID-19 pandemic.

My 1-year-turned-2-year exploration has proven considerably more rewarding and enjoyable than I anticipated at the outset. It’s helped me process our experiences, and it’s helped me decide on future plans.

More milestones than planned. And overshoot of monumental and still undetermined proportions.

Part of our original 2-4 year plan at the outset (back in 2006), we’ve periodically considered selling Rosslyn and building a new smaller, greener, less demanding lakeside retreat. But mixed emotions have repeatedly stalled our decision-making. Our attachment is strong.

I’ve grappled with the idea of “consciously uncoupling” from Rosslyn, passing the property on to new owners, and my writing process over the last 730 days has become an effective way to untangle my deep attachment to the property and to determine if/when I’m ready to move on.

Which brings me to my conclusion, to clarity, and to decisions. Stay tuned!