![\"Teeter-Tottering:](\"https:\/\/abdul2.rosslynredux.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/3b59b50b-ff6f-400d-a260-036c444563c4.jpg\" "\\"Teeter-Tottering:")
<\/a>To borrow a turn of phrase from Shaye Elliott<\/a>, \u201cI\u2019m teeter tottering between<\/a>\u201d being fully present in Essex and departing for Santa Fe, betwixt summer\u2019s curtain call and autumn\u2019s debut, between and betwixt scores of less-than-precisely delineated transitions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Should I stay or should I go now? \u2014 The Clash<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Fair warning: I\u2019m mixing metaphors today. Like fusion cooking and creative cocktail concocting, I\u2019m hoping that purists will forgive my transgression(s) and sample the experiment with an open mind.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n I\u2019ve already shared a couple of quick riffs on the push-and-pull of seasonality, wrapping up the re-decking project<\/a>, re-starting the boathouse gangway project, launching the exciting new icehouse project, and recovering from August 30 storm damage. I need to flesh out all of those transitions in fuller detail soon, but today instead I\u2019ll touch on our autumn changeover from the Adirondack Coast to the high desert southwest with an unanticipated delay for COVID and a perhaps peculiarly drawn out rumination on teeter-tottering. Fair warning!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n I\u2019m struck, I might add, by the strength of this teeter-tottering metaphor. The teeter-totter, a seesaw, with someone sitting on the other end, riding the teeter-totter seat down to the ground, close enough to toe-touch. When fortunate, bringing the soles of both feet to rest on the ground and bending knees to squat and push off, sending teeter-totter up into the air as a friend on the other end returns to the earth.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n I recollect that there\u2019s another challenge (and distinct pleasure) to teeter-tottering as well. Sure, it\u2019s exciting to tip one another up and down, but balancing is also appealing, both friends suspended in mid air, neither touching the ground, neither rising, neither falling. Equilibrium. Balance. A quivering stasis that requires focus and collaboration between both friends.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Obviously the principal thrill of balancing on a teeter totter is that it\u2019s incredibly difficult. And just as obvious is the indisputable fact that teeter-totter equilibrium is it best temporary. Eventually one or the other person will come back down to the earth, planting their feet on the ground, while the other will lift skyward. It\u2019s impossible to postpone indefinitely.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n So if it\u2019s obvious, why am I explaining it this way? I think that the allure of the teeter-tottering metaphor \u2014 at least for me, right now \u2014 is that it so perfectly conjoins otherwise dissimilar sentiments.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n I\u2019m thrilled, exhilarated, and yet anxious about the abundance of thresholds upon which we are currently balancing. Certainly there\u2019s a very real exuberance in the moments where we shed some gravity and float high. There are butterflies in the belly (and whirlwinds of worry in the belfry) when lofty ambitions come plunging down. But like that teeter-tottering youth of my memory, I often find that we\u2019re endeavoring to maintain some fragile equilibrium, knowing full well that we can\u2019t maintain it forever, and yet hoping to stabilize the teeter-totter for a moment, just another moment,\u2026 Or maybe a day? A week? This is not to say that we\u2019re in denial about the inevitability of some pretty major transitions, but it speaks honestly about our hesitance in at least some cases.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n You\u2019ve possibly noticed a parade of posts recently addressing the transitions and transformations that we\u2019re navigating. I apologize for too often talking obliquely, speaking around<\/em><\/strong> the issue rather than addressing it directly. Sometimes that\u2019s part of the process, I\u2019m afraid. Sometimes the prologue serves the needs of the storyteller even more than the reader.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n In short, please bear with me. I recognize that not everybody enjoys teeter-tottering, so thank you for your patience, and in many cases, thank you for your generosity and advice and coaching.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Know then that this curiously kaleidoscopic time and space we\u2019re teeter-tottering through (I warned you about mixing my metaphors!) will yield to more candid sharing when the time is right, with updates aplenty including:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n With those considerably more interesting transformations in the offing soon, I\u2019ll conclude this post with a slightly more personal teeter-tottering anecdote.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
![\"Teeter-Tottering:](\"https:\/\/abdul2.rosslynredux.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/7a5beaeb-ab00-49a7-93eb-8ba467509d8d.jpg\" "\\"Teeter-Tottering:")
<\/a>Teasing Out Teeter-Tottering Metaphor<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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