A clean slate. An empty canvas. A fresh start. A new beginning.
Or a potential nightmare of guilt, failure, and shame.

Thus begins the process of each writing project. This blog post began with a blank page. I wondered why I ever agreed over a decade ago to write a blog. I procrastinated with enough excuses to be described as legion. I told myself that no one cares what I think on any subject. I knew I didn’t have anything new to write that would be of significance.

Once my episode of complaining is done, I begin to write. Sometimes I open with a blank screen and my fingers play a chaotic tune as if sight-reading music. Other posts start in a moleskin notebook written by hand. The pages are littered with half-started ideas and incomplete thoughts. And this post is no exception. Today’s is the fourth one that received some scratches.

The blank page is the universal place where every writer begins. And in that moment and in that place all things are equal.

A place where the artist begins creating verba ex nihilo.*

A place of immeasurable potential and endless possibilities.

A place on which a treasure map is drawn, leading a reader to riches unimagined.

A place where worlds are spun into existence.

A place of trauma revisited, of healing experienced, of restoration bestowed.

A place of creation, inspiration, and wonder.

Remember this as you fill today’s blank page:

The world will be a little different tomorrow
because of what you write today.

*words out of nothing