This Moment Matters
by Jim Schendel

Several years ago, I had the good fortune to study acting with the late Sanford Meisner, who created the "Meisner Technique." Sandy (as we affectionately called him) had an uncanny way of saying a simple phrase, which somehow seemed to speak volumes. Recently, one such phrase keeps bubbling up to the top of my awareness.

I can see him now standing on the stage of a tiny, dingy theatre bent over his ivory cane while peering out through his cokebottle glasses. A few seconds go by. Finally he smiles a wry smile and says in a tiny rasp of a whisper:

"Every little moment has a meaning all its own."

Immediately, all of us dutiful students scribble furiously. Sandy's face hardens into a scowl. "DON'T WRITE!!!!" he screams. We all freeze in a dead silence and slowly look up from our notebooks. Then he whispers again. "Contemplate what I just said. Let it roll around in your head a little."

We sit there like zombies. No one speaks, no one moves. We can hear the clock tick. After a full three minutes of agonizing, exhilarating silence, he smiles again. "OK, now you can write," he says. Everyone laughs and breathes a deep, satisfying sigh. Somehow I manage to miss the purpose of this experience, because my first thought is "This is the best advice any actor could ever receive. I'll be sure and find the meaning of each moment of the character's life next time I do a scene." It never even occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, I could use this advice when I stepped off the stage.

Spend the next little moment with me letting this phrase "roll around in your head a little"... "Every little moment has a meaning all its own."... In a very literal sense, these are "words to live by."

As my Personal Journey with Mary goes on, I find myself more and more willing to fully experience each moment. Every moment does have its own significance if I'm willing to slow down my thoughts and let it touch me. Not that life is rosy. Heck no!! I still have moments of anger, frustration, loneliness, jealousy, rage, boredom, pain, etc., but these moments also have their meaning and are worth exploring.

In the midst of all this is a voice of my ego constantly giving me the latest orders from Command Headquarters, outlining which moments are to be experienced and which are to be ignored. Do any of these phrases sound familiar? "God, only one more hour of this torture and it will be lunchtime." "Will this traffic never end?" "This is the most boring speaker I've ever heard." "I can't wait for the weekend. Then I'll really have fun." And on and on and on.

But truly living each moment has a higher purpose than just the moment itself, for what is life but the sum total of all our little moments? Miss the meaning of the moment and you miss the meaning of life. That's the bottom line. This moment matters!

Jim Schendel is an actor, artist and Personal Journey Graduate.