Finding The Magic

I did something unusual yesterday: I wrote from 2:30 to 3:30 PM. This was in addition to when I always write, which is from 6:30 to 8:30 AM. Am I a little rigid in that schedule? Why, yes, I am. Am I also a little superstitious about this schedule? Turns out, also yes. I didn’t think I was. I just preferred the morning, which I still do. My mind seems clearest, the city is quietest, my coffee is freshest; it’s a good time to write.

But yesterday, after writing my column in the morning, and then exercising and playing music and doing some work for clients, 2:30 rolled around and I was feeling antsy and disconnected. I had spent too much time drifting around in my head, watching unsatisfying videos, and playing games I didn’t enjoy. Normally, when I felt the way I did, I’d just muster through, feeling low for no identifiable reason until the day was thankfully over and I could go to sleep and get up the next morning and write and feel connected again.

Why wait until tomorrow? I thought. There was a chapter I was interested in getting back to. Why not work on it now? Because, I thought, I needed the magic. Writing isn’t chopping wood. You can’t just do it; you have to do it from the right frame of mind and with the help of whatever you name the source of all the ideas worth writing about. I had decided I knew how to access that magic at 6:30 AM. What if I couldn’t at 2:30 PM, what with all the noise and no coffee and that hard summer sunlight?

You already know the answer to this, I’m sure. We all do, if we’re honest. I indeed worked on and finished that chapter to my satisfaction. But finishing the chapter was the least of my victories. I felt connected again, and reassured that the magic does not recognize times of day or quality of sunlight or the freshness of coffee. It’s all meaningless to the magic, as it should be. In fact, what I have called meaning is in the experience of finding magic wherever and whenever I am.

If you like the ideas and perspectives expressed here, feel free to contact me about individual coaching and group workshops.

Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt
You can find William at: williamkenower.com