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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is that magic happens in the mushy middle.

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Speaker 1: With any long term project or habit, motivation can dip

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Speaker 1: when both the starting line and the finish line are

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Speaker 1: not in sight. But I have found that magic often

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Speaker 1: happens in the in between places.

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Speaker 2: It is best to be there for it. Longtime listeners

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Speaker 2: know that I am a big fan of year long projects.

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Speaker 2: This particular year, I am listening to all the works

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Speaker 2: of Bach. I am also writing a sonnet every week

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Speaker 2: at the rate of two lines per day. This episode

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Speaker 2: is first airing in July, and all that New year

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Speaker 2: energy for new goals is long swept into the past.

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Speaker 2: We are also nowhere near December, where the prospect of

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Speaker 2: finishing starts to exert its own pull. Long term projects

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Speaker 2: can occasionally suffer from some malaise in performance. Let's just

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Speaker 2: say that a few of my recent sonnets have been

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Speaker 2: fairly pedantic. I rhyme the words eyes and surprise, and

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Speaker 2: that wasn't even the worst of it. Persisting in the

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Speaker 2: mushy middle is hard, but I try to remind myself

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Speaker 2: that magic often happens in the mushy middle. You have

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Speaker 2: to be there to experience it, and so you commit

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Speaker 2: to continuing to just be there. For instance, I was

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Speaker 2: listening to BWV one eighty one the other day, which

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Speaker 2: is my one hundred eighty first Bach Church cantata. There's

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Speaker 2: a lot of cantatas, some are more workaday than others.

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Speaker 2: But then there was this thrilling, aggressive violin line thrown

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Speaker 2: in there where the violinist plays more than one note simultaneously,

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Speaker 2: which is always pretty cool. And then there was a

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Speaker 2: glorious brass fanfare. A few moments after that. I sat

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Speaker 2: up in my seat listening just a little glimpse of magic.

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Speaker 2: There is no way I would have listened to BWV

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Speaker 2: one eighty one if I wasn't going through all the

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Speaker 2: works of Bach. It is not a particularly famous cantata,

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Speaker 2: unlike say the Christmas oratorio. Oh, people aren't performing it regularly.

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Speaker 2: But because I am listening to all two hundred plus cantatas,

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Speaker 2: I listen to that cantata and I heard those wonderful

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Speaker 2: strings and trumpets. I am trying to keep this in

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Speaker 2: mind with my sonnets too, because I keep writing two

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Speaker 2: lines a day, I keep completing a sonnet every week.

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Speaker 2: Some are not particularly inspired, and so it is tempting

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Speaker 2: in the middle of a week where I can see

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Speaker 2: that the sonnet is going nowhere to stop. But then

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Speaker 2: sometimes I come up with an image, or an interesting rhyme,

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Speaker 2: or just an interesting line. I might be able to

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Speaker 2: use that elsewhere, and it wouldn't have happened if I

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Speaker 2: had just stopped. You never entirely know when the good

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Speaker 2: stuff is going to happen, so you just have to

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Speaker 2: keep at it. Sure, magic might be possible at the

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Speaker 2: beginning or the end of anything, but it can happen

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Speaker 2: in the middle too. You write a draft of an

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Speaker 2: article that is not particularly insightful, but one line in

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Speaker 2: the middle sparks a new way of thinking that you

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Speaker 2: then pursue in your next work. You go to worship

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Speaker 2: services most weeks, and many aren't that memorable, but then

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Speaker 2: one week something just opens up new ways of understanding.

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Speaker 2: I am not saying you need to stick with anything forever.

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Speaker 2: Many things do just run their course. But if it

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Speaker 2: is a mostly positive force in your life, and it's

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Speaker 2: never too onerous, it might be worth persisting even if

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Speaker 2: things are a bit ho hum. You never know when

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Speaker 2: magic will happen, but it is good to be there

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Speaker 2: for it in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening,

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Speaker 2: and here's to making the most of our time.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,

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Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura

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Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.

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