continuing silence

6/23/14
  Six months have elapsed since i started my attempt at a year of silence. There have been a couple slips of the tongue and one emergency situation, but overall i have remained quiet.
  The halfway point is always my favorite part of any art project i undertake.
  I don't like beginnings. They are always so tentative and uncertain. The majority of the time, i wind up going back and fixing the first clumsy missteps of fledgling endeavors.
  Finishing a project is never a joyous occasion for me either. Endings always leave me feeling bereft. Upon completing a piece i am left empty and without purpose.
  But being midway through something is a magical time. It's at that moment i become certain of an art project's viability. I step back and scrutinize it, to determine its value and quality. If i'm lucky, at that instant, a euphoric rush of purposeful resolve overtakes me. The piece begins to take on a life of its own. My hands become the tools of its intention, not my own. Under the will of something better than myself, with the furies of uncertainty utterly banished, i joyously work towards the artwork's completion, knowing what i'm doing is "right".
   Many weeks ago, however, i came to the realization that this endeavor in silence did not meet the standard to be called art. So what is this ongoing quiet, and why do i continue?