I'm currently sitting on a blank page. I'd like it filled with family, love, passion, and creativity. I've been reading more books. I read Drawn: The Art of Ascent again, which brought me back to see what you are up to. It felt like the universe was timing my reconnection with reading, art, storytelling, (and, of course Jer and climbing to 😂)
As a brand new RN entering into the realm of healthcare, my addition to myriad blank pages will be to make it my mission to provide the best possible care to the men and women who have served our country.
Oh….and I’m on a mission of Stoicism to quell the thoughts racing through my head about the destruction being so irreparably rained down on our country.
More words! I’m adding more words to my blank pages! I am finishing another book. I am finishing (and starting) another travel journal. I am writing more letters. I am writing more essays. I am writing more for no reason. It is a remedial and cobweb clearing.
And maybe just maybe I’ll replace the kitchen sink with the one in my garage that’s sat for a full 5 years.
Well… perhaps for some this post gives pause… to feel and process the emotional reckoning that it may stir from the depths. Or that may already be simmering on the back burner.
Blank pages… I read the Dharma Bums. It’s a dear friend’s favorite that he rereads annually. I semi-unconsciously and partially have lived bits of it, yet somehow missed that resonant line. Thank you for illuminating it. It’s especially reverberating these days.
My blank pages? I’ve been in a years-long process of scraping the words and images from pages writ long ago. Successive loss and grief can take you down that path. A long beautiful, lyrical, and complexly messy relationship; a brother; a mother and soul guide; various “work” identities; a home community and beloved land needing to be left behind. All of these subsequently physically returned to the ashes and earth from whence they once arose from points near and distant.
That is, I’ve been working on a restoration project that involves a stripping down to base foundations. These are “blank pages” fashioned and repurposed from what came before. They are not pristine, yet they hold character, imperfections, and wisdom born of experience. That scraping and stripping off of layers… it’s an uncomfortable, sometimes painful process. Clinging to the familiar baggage of those layers often does not serve one well as we walk through our years. Yet… while that blank, cold expanse of empty pages can seem daunting, it’s their very essence that provides a structure to build a new season of life. To have at a new turn toward fashioning one’s identity into yet another iteration of self. “This above all: to thine own self be true…”
In this hemisphere, we are in winter. A time to rest, lay fallow, to clean and mend tools needed for coming seasons. What will we write and sketch on these blank pages that lay before us? No doubt, as always, spring and summer will help us cultivate and bear wonderful fruits.
You write with eloquence and yes, wisdom. I continue to enjoy reading your work. I remember going to your art exhibit in Ouray and have always enjoyed your online art. Keep at it.
I'm currently sitting on a blank page. I'd like it filled with family, love, passion, and creativity. I've been reading more books. I read Drawn: The Art of Ascent again, which brought me back to see what you are up to. It felt like the universe was timing my reconnection with reading, art, storytelling, (and, of course Jer and climbing to 😂)
As a brand new RN entering into the realm of healthcare, my addition to myriad blank pages will be to make it my mission to provide the best possible care to the men and women who have served our country.
Oh….and I’m on a mission of Stoicism to quell the thoughts racing through my head about the destruction being so irreparably rained down on our country.
Love this!!! 🥰
More words! I’m adding more words to my blank pages! I am finishing another book. I am finishing (and starting) another travel journal. I am writing more letters. I am writing more essays. I am writing more for no reason. It is a remedial and cobweb clearing.
And maybe just maybe I’ll replace the kitchen sink with the one in my garage that’s sat for a full 5 years.
Can confirm.
Gorgeous post. Palpable optimism.
Well… perhaps for some this post gives pause… to feel and process the emotional reckoning that it may stir from the depths. Or that may already be simmering on the back burner.
Blank pages… I read the Dharma Bums. It’s a dear friend’s favorite that he rereads annually. I semi-unconsciously and partially have lived bits of it, yet somehow missed that resonant line. Thank you for illuminating it. It’s especially reverberating these days.
My blank pages? I’ve been in a years-long process of scraping the words and images from pages writ long ago. Successive loss and grief can take you down that path. A long beautiful, lyrical, and complexly messy relationship; a brother; a mother and soul guide; various “work” identities; a home community and beloved land needing to be left behind. All of these subsequently physically returned to the ashes and earth from whence they once arose from points near and distant.
That is, I’ve been working on a restoration project that involves a stripping down to base foundations. These are “blank pages” fashioned and repurposed from what came before. They are not pristine, yet they hold character, imperfections, and wisdom born of experience. That scraping and stripping off of layers… it’s an uncomfortable, sometimes painful process. Clinging to the familiar baggage of those layers often does not serve one well as we walk through our years. Yet… while that blank, cold expanse of empty pages can seem daunting, it’s their very essence that provides a structure to build a new season of life. To have at a new turn toward fashioning one’s identity into yet another iteration of self. “This above all: to thine own self be true…”
In this hemisphere, we are in winter. A time to rest, lay fallow, to clean and mend tools needed for coming seasons. What will we write and sketch on these blank pages that lay before us? No doubt, as always, spring and summer will help us cultivate and bear wonderful fruits.
You write with eloquence and yes, wisdom. I continue to enjoy reading your work. I remember going to your art exhibit in Ouray and have always enjoyed your online art. Keep at it.