We are always in the present. In the essay “Thinking Stillness,” Yve Lomax argues that the present is “an interval,” the state of no longer and not yet which is “becoming” but never what is. In Japan, we call this 間—Ma, which translates to “between.” I see the present as Ma, a continuous emergence.

When spatially moving from point A to point B, we travel through a passage. The passage is not the destination but exists as an “interval”—Ma.  To get to point B as soon as possible, we contract Ma to avoid waiting. We want to feel controlled and calculated. Once we arrive at B, the moving entity should transition from motion to stillness, but it doesn’t. It keeps moving towards the next destination, point n. From this perspective, a person never arrives at point n. We are always in Ma.