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The Blank Page

Megan Mcdonough

I bought another journal today that I didn’t need. My daughter says I have a fetish for journals – and she’s probably right. I have thin and fat, large and small, colorful and plain journals stuck in all sorts of places – including by my bed, in my car, the office, kitchen and here now as I sit in our town common at the local farmer’s market.

I like the blank pages bound with a beautiful cover. It holds potential. It’s unencumbered with rules, responsibility and “shoulds.” It’s filled instead with “can-be’s.”

We all need a pathless place to explore—like a coloring book without lines, an empty book, a blank canvas, a walk through the uncharted woods.

Maybe the infamous mid-life crisis comes when we deprive ourselves of a space to just create. When we keep reaching outward for satisfaction – a fancy new car, a thrilling young relationship – we miss the creative inner spark that is the sustaining, interesting and intriguing juice of life. We ignore the capacity to be led from inner motivation versus outer expectations. It’s not easy to meet the blank page; it’s scary and at times cumbersome. But it’s infinitely more satisfying over time and is a consistent validation of who you are. The satisfaction lasts longer than the fleeing high of the shiny new thing used as a distraction.

If you looked at your day today, would you find space for a blank page? Is there room in your mind for creative expression without boundaries? What would you do with that space if found?

  • Megan’s latest book, A Minute for Me, is now available. Please contact Megan McDonough through the community to join her writing group in central Massachusetts.
  • [tags]blank page, mid-life crisis, creative expression, my life[/tags]

    Author: Megan Mcdonough

    People with big ideas face a constant challenge: how to transform that vision into a new and better reality. Whether it’s change in your personal life or success in your business, vision needs action (and rest) to manifest.

    2 Responses to “The Blank Page”

    1. Deb says:

      Hey Meghan! I think I have a thing for journals too! I have been on holidays the past few weeks and have begun my morning pages again and am loving the time in my life to write and fill the space of my lined pages. I have already noticed how creativity begins to flow once all the other”stuff” is released onto the pages! I use lined refill paper in a small binder for this exercise as the larger page gives me LOTS of space. This ‘morning pages’ practice requires 3 pages of writing, which some mornings takes me a long time to fill. I was thinking about how to keep this practice going once I am back to work in the fall (I am a college instructor) and decided that I could by committing to filling one page each morning. Why not? It’s about making the practice work for me isn’t it? :0) Thanks for this post.

    2. Hello fellow lover-of-writing! I agree that a busy life filled with things to do can be like a magnet drawing our attention away from writing. Love the simplicity and the impact of just writing one page a day. What a way to start off on the right foot…

    Leave a Reply to Deb