Days 224-225 What To Do with a Blank Page?

A blank page lies before me now, undefined, open territory. This white page is open to receive my thoughts and ideas without resistance, questioning, or judgment. A white clay of nothingness that longs for the creative life force to breathe life into existence. A deep yearning for communion between possibility and our human potential. This quest for mutual discovery is what a Journal seeks to offer us.

Ah, but how that blank page can intimidate us. Perhaps, this is because we are quick to listen to the voice of our inner critic that judges and squelches creativity with self-defeating admonishes of caution. On the other hand, our desire for perfection may also prevent some of us from engaging life fully with an adventurous spirit.

I can recall times in college when I had an assignment that required writing a paper. I would procrastinate, for a sundry of reasons. Suddenly, I could not concentrate because my room was messy. I would clean up my living space; even reorganize a closet, do anything other than my assignment. Finally, the pressure of a deadline would cause me to sit down and begin the process. What seems key for any goal is to begin, or as the old Nike slogan proclaimed to “just do it.”

A journal page provides a way to spend time with our most private thoughts in an atmosphere of acceptance. In this space we can sail upon the vast sea of unexplored inner landscapes. What is it about the actual process of journaling that is healing, almost magical? This creative act of writing down our thoughts and feelings forges a more intimate relationship, often with the parts of our selves we have long abandoned. Journaling creates a sacred presence with our most precious self. The one we usually don't make time for or see as especially valuable.

Journaling can provide a meaningful opportunity to reflect and to gain clarity on our life's purpose. Through journaling, we can explore the intricate patterns of our choices as we dream new weavings to life.

I am grateful for this sacred Journal, where we can share our thoughts and Love in expansive ways, traveling instantaneously through cyberspace to greet one another as dear friends and lovers of life.

~liz Sorensen Wessel

Note: ink drawing and watercolor by ~liz

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Categories: Reflections, Holidays, Spirituality

Tags: Journal of Sacred Work, Journaling, Liz Sorensen Wessel; Erie Chapman Foundation

6 responses to “Days 224-225 What To Do with a Blank Page?”

erie chapman

August 14, 2011 at 9:20 pm

This is absolutely one of your best writings, Liz. I hove the way you have explored the concept of a blank page and suggested the potential that lies there. Thanks also for touching on the way our fear can block us. The page can remain blank or we can choose to fill it with beauty, with something safe but perhaps trite, or something that reflects the voices of our darker angels.
You fill pages, as well, with your terrific paintings and ink drawings in ways that are an enormous gift to Journal readers. Thank you

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Maureen McDermott

August 15, 2011 at 6:35 am

What a helpful reflection Liz. Yes, journaling is such a precious gift and wonderful too for our inner journey. I often refer to the following quote from Mary Morrison, “First of all, if we have never done it before we need to begin keeping a journal – not a diary of daily outward events, but a thoughtful writing down of happenings, thoughts, dreams, nightmares, things we read or hear that seem important; whatever claims our attention for whatever reason. Most important, we need to write down thoughtfully our responses to them, both our immediate reaction and our later considerations. Nothing will make us aware of our attitudes as well as this exercise, nothing will help us as well to sort out what is important to us, and what of all our lifetime store of soul furniture we want to keep or discard. A journal is an instrument of awareness, through which we can watch what we do so we can find out who we are.”
Mary C Morrison Let Evening Come – Reflections on Aging pp 8-9
I really appreciate the description of a journal as an instrument so that we can find out who we are. Thank you Liz.

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Maria Doglio

August 15, 2011 at 5:51 pm

Liz, I love this! I often look at blank pages, notebooks, canvases, lumps of clay as objects of great potential! My most favorite potential blank is graph paper, not so blank in the pure sense of “nothing on the page” but what great things have been created on graph paper! I think it’s my favorite type of “waiting for the potential” invitation!
BTW, I love how you fill up your blanks with color!

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van

August 15, 2011 at 11:36 pm

Thank you for sharing Liz. Its nice to read something like this. Its nice to get a break from whatever that kept us busy like bees ;p and take a moment to look. Blank page before us. Its what we chose to fill it with. Its our thoughts and attitudes. The decision we made. Of course we can’t control the world, but we can choose how we want to live with it and what we want to fill it with. I feel my life more and more complicated. As I try to solve one problem, only to face new ones as I am about to complete the other. I wonder if there is any blank spaces left for me. And I started to doubt myself whether I know what I am doing. I hope I can fill my blank spaces with many colors and rainbows and stars. Thanks again Liz, you are my great inspiration.

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candace nagle

August 16, 2011 at 9:29 am

I love the Nike slogan…Just do it! Take the plunge in spite of doubts or fears or feeling empty. The blank page is where everything is possible, right?! Often my private journal entries start with a comment about the foggy morning or what my cats are doing. And that is just fine, because those mundane observations are the entry way into the quiet place where I can truly stop and find my way home to my own spirit. This journal has the same effect for me…with the added benefit of communing in the spirit with you all…I am grateful for this cyber home!

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Marily

August 16, 2011 at 1:49 pm

Hello dear friends, nice to be home enjoying in quiet the beauty and love in here shared by everyone. Truly I look forward in coming, I may not share my thoughts and reflections in that instant but I do revisit and pour out after a few… 🙂 I am blessed to belong.
There are still times that I feel scared for a moment, knowing there are certain things to happen that may hurt.. these moments are breathlessly nauseating… crying can alleviate, but I think this is one of the times that I need this blank page… to keep my focus anew and remember what really matters. I thank and praise God for everything… it could mean everything, terror and beauty that comes and goes like vapors in the morning.

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