Article March 19, 2001 Issue

Witness to creation

Seeing beyond blank pages

By Sara Terry Gabrels

FOR MANY WRITERS, it's the worst feeling in the world—sitting down in front of a keyboard and staring at a blank screen. No sentences. No words. No ideas. And worst of all, the paralyzing fear that there may never be any words, ever again, just blank pages or screens stretching endlessly into the future. Forever.

Writer's block isn't limited to writers. It's familiar to anyone who works in a creative or artistic field—whether it's visual arts, dance, music, or any other work where someone appears to create "something" where there was "nothing."

But obstructed inspiration doesn't have to be a part of the creative process. There's a whole different way to work. one that resonates with the kind of awe that the Psalmist felt when he sang, "O Lord my God, thou art very great; ... Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain . . . Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever" (Ps. 104:1, 2, 5). This different way of working starts with getting to better know God as creator, as infinite Spirit. And with identifying yourself with God's boundless creative energies.

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