Thursday, October 09, 2008

The Blank Page

The blank page has been scary lately. I made a commitment to myself at the beginning of July to write daily. Or at least post something every day. Mostly what I do is try to live in awareness...to take a simple moment in daily life and write from there. When I spend too many days simply getting through them and not paying too much attention to anything around or within me then I come to the keyboard feeling like the blank page is my enemy. Not because I want something to write about, although I do, but because it tells me I am simply letting life slip by unawares.

4 comments:

owenswain said...

To say we have been here and to say we are present while here, I think, is at the core of why we journal keepers keep journals (diaries, notebooks, weblogs, call them what we may).

To not let life slip by unawares is part of what I am looking for in that certain space and why I simply name every post by "Day # [---], the parenthetical note being a one or two word description I note after I have written the entry, a way of noting for myself - Oh, so this is what I was saying at the core of this entry.

I seem to be getting the blank writing page down - what I continue to find scary is the blank drawing page. Isn't that odd?

Bless you Hope.

Jim said...

It's good to recognize that life is, indeed, "slipping away" and good to grab as much of it as we can; but I think "the blank page" comes as much out of a feeling we feed ourselves, telling ourselves that what we write is nothing "new". We've said as much before. In truth, though, I don't visit here for the next episode or the next revelation. It's just nice reading your spirit be you....

owenswain said...

"It's just nice reading your spirit be you...." That's lovely jim.

Anonymous said...

Slipping by. That's it. You named it. I don't like it. Not sure how to react to it except to say "Oh God."

I agree with Owen about what Jim said. Yeah, it's true. That's why I keep coming back.
:)
Mich