STEPPING OFF

     As a queen sits down, knowing that a chair will be      there,
     Or a general raises his hand and is given the field-      glasses,
     Step off assuredly into the blank of your mind.
     Something will come to you.

Those are the opening lines of "Walking to Sleep," a poem by Richard Wilbur. They remind me of when I was in graduate school and had paper after paper to write. With experience, I realized that even when I felt overwhelmed by the reading or was certain I had nothing of interest to say, if I sat in front of the computer - stayed in the chair - something would come to me and lead me on from there. As if obeying an order from the Red Queen in "Alice In Wonderland," I would start at the beginning, work through the middle and stop when I came to the end. I developed some faith that if I focused, something would come.
     There is a deeper meaning to those lines; faith is the real topic Wilbur writes about.  "Step off assuredly..." Step off - not merely face, but step off into the blankness, give yourself up to it, let yourself be submerged in that still, clear pool, that cloud of unknowing. And be assured, step gingerly, with confidence, in faith.  Free yourself...and something will come.
      In fact, we are all stepping off from moment to moment; we step off into what we don't know and can't see; we are always risking going forward into the unknown. I may do it with confidence or I may do it with fear, but confidence and fear are two sides of an ancient coin that comes from the past. I want to leave both of them behind, to face the future with the freedom of the blank, free of opinions and ideas that can only narrow my view. Faith is the ledge I step off from.  Without it, I would be paralyzed, unable to take a step at all, and then I would miss the world as it reveals itself to me. I would miss all that might, undoubtedly shall come to me.