First Things: In the Now

This morning I'm really thinking about the importance of what lies before us... of the now.

This idea has really been impressed on me lately as I've been teaching my improv classes. In any acting situation, the actor always strives to be "In the moment" with his scene partners and with herself. When an improviser is focused in the moment, nothing goes by in a scene without it being picked up, examined and devoured.

The best improvisers do this by habit. On stage they LIVE in the now. Your character is tying his/her shoes and misses tying the shoelace - "watch out, you're going to trip over that." A character sneezes - "You have a cold, Damn - I knew it stay away from me!" Not only are they in the moment, they are there with the strongest of emotional choices and imperatives.

This moment that has just happened is the most important thing in the world RIGHT NOW and we need to take action on it before we DIE.

A little dramatic, but the point is there.  Don't miss those moments.

And so it is with life. We live our best lives when we are present in the moment - when we don't gloss over someone's emotionally tinted comment, when we listen with our ears, our mind, and our heart, and when we react to the thing that just happened and deal with it before we move on.  Sometimes that means making tough decisions, or halting something else, or waiting for another opportunity. But we have to live in this moment because that is where our lives, our memories, our world is built.

First Things: Live inspiration to live

My partner, Ian, is working his way through the Interior Design program at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. I could not be more proud of him as he works toward a goal he has had since just after high school.

CCS is a tough school. Current students, alumni, and faculty all kind of joke about how the end of the semester is always a time of wailing and gnashing of teeth around the campus. The school puts its students through the ringer when it comes to churning out studio projects and designs - but the results are phenomenal and it's a reason why Detroit has one of the best design schools in the country.

So we are in late-nights and stress-days at the Evans/Myers house. Last night I got to watch Ian take designs he's been working through on the computer and pull them together with a lot of fabric, effort, and hot glue - lots of hot glue. I helped a little, holding a piece of leather here so it stays glued there and giving encouragement, as he brought his concept to reality - or at least a prototype of reality. And it was inspiring.

We can be creative thinkers, writers, bloggers... but there is something truly inspirational when we create something with our hands... when we breath new life into an old piece of furniture; when we paint a room a color we've been thinking about; when we draw something simply for the sake of playfulness - we breath inspiration through our actions, our work, our sweat, our tears.

We must live inspiration to live.