Starting my day today, I opened with my typical routine: tea, scrolling on the phone, a meditation exercise, and finally, writing. When I opened my laptop and routinely hit the power button, something different happened. A blank sheet on Word popped up. Not a blank screen, completely at the mercy of my hands and waiting for me to choose what I wanted to do with it, but a blank sheet that chose me.
I could have closed out of the Word doc and resumed exactly what I planned to do, sticking to my routine and getting caught up in life’s vortex of monotony. See, so many people get caught in comfort zones. We form routines or we form presumptions about this, that, or the other. We say no to things because we “know” we don’t like to do them. Why not try? What can it hurt?
Admittedly, this was happenstance. I’m not going to churn this into a story of fate or destiny. But I’ll make of it what I want, which is that this was a nice reminder for me to let a blank sheet be a blank sheet, to allow the break in my routine and to do something with this experience that wasn’t necessarily high on my priority list.
So maybe your blank sheet is something as simple as an old friend asking you to go to the movies. You may not want to sit through a two-hour movie or maybe you have apprehensions about seeing this friend from the past. Maybe it's a stormy day. Or perhaps it's your untouched diary that really wants some writing in it—a literal blank sheet! Whatever your blank sheet is, it's worth taking some time to acknowledge it and let it be what it is.