Member-only story
Blank Slate
January theme for The Wild Writer’s Club — Beginnings
A new year. A blank sheet of paper. As white and pristine as untouched snow blanketing the slopes of the highest peaks. A moment for hope, optimism and a clean start.
Or is it a continuation of the previous one? The same problems, the same strife, a new chapter in the same story. Does the pristine snow and the blank sheet herald dread? That which is perfect waiting to be tarnished by those first tentative footsteps. A crisp sheet of paper just waiting for those first pen strokes to sully it.
Dark clouds gather overhead ready to disgorge more snow onto the waiting ground below. Layer upon layer blanketing, covering, smothering. Thick clouds shut out the blue sky and wintry sunlight. No brightness on the horizon to strive for, just a blank emptiness and a silent landscape.
Or maybe, just maybe, those thick black clouds shedding their snowflakes aren’t there to smother, to hide and to bury. Not entirely. Perhaps they cover the previous year in a soft blanket. Not erase it, for nothing erases the past. But covers it and offers a blank canvas for the year ahead. An untouched sheet of paper just waiting for a story to be written. A land covered in snow waiting for our first tentative steps forward into this new year. A chance to write our story with our voice, in…