Beyond the Mirage

Approaching Essex by ferry. Sun on our faces and wind in our hair. Looking contemplatively at Rosslyn’s waterfront, boats berthed beside the boathouse, a family playing on the beach. Maybe getting ready to waterski. Or windsurf. I find Susan’s hand and we pull close together, smiling as we watch Rosslyn’s next owner enjoying the lakeside lifestyle that we held dear for almost 2 decades.

Years ago we conjured [this hypothetical scenario as] a metric for evaluating when we might be ready to offer our home to a new homeowner… (Source: ChatGPT & “Dear John” Letter Writing)

Ferrying into Essex and seeing another family, Rosslyn’s new homeowners, laughing and frolicking, swimming and boating where we’d made so many memories over the years had become a mirage-like “What if?” Would we be thrilled? Or would we second-guess our decision to sell Rosslyn?

We never quite reached a point that an answer became clear and obvious. But we’ve come to realize that it might have been an unreasonable expectation. This theoretical “barometer read” presupposed that we’d finally tire or lose interest or… something. But we’ve never arrived at that threshold. We continue to fall deeper in love with this property even though we know it’s better suited to a family with more members taking advantage year round, etc.

It’s as if we’d seen a mirage that continued to vanish as we approached, whether literally on the ferry or figuratively in our conversations. So we’ve decided to venture beyond the mirage!

Susan and my consideration about whether or not it was time to untether from Rosslyn in order to compose a new chapter took the form of a running dialogue — sometimes debating and sometimes brainstorming — as well as reams of sketches and plans endeavoring to translate our ideas, our aspirations into a concrete vision for the future. We enlisted engineers. We presented a plan for approval. And then we reconsidered and revised. We iterated and reiterated.

Little by little we came to understand that we were ready to imagine our lives beyond Rosslyn. Curiosity eclipsed all that was familiar and comfortable. Questions pulled us forward… (Source: Dear Rosslyn: Preambulum)

We’re ready. Most of the time. Sometimes there’s a little backsliding, but by and large we’re ready for a new adventure. And we’re ready to imagine Rosslyn’s future homeowners celebrating life on this amazing waterfront.

So I contemplate our ferry/waterfront scenario with new eyes as we begin to imagine beyond the mirage.