In Search of "Ma"

I told Miyazaki I love the "gratuitous motion" in his films; instead of every movement being dictated by the story, sometimes people will just sit for a moment, or they will sigh, or look in a running stream, or do something extra, not to advance the story but only to give the sense of time and place and who they are.

"We have a word for that in Japanese," he said. "It's called ma. Emptiness. It's there intentionally."

“I don't think it's like the pillow word." He clapped his hands three or four times. "The time in between my clapping is ma. If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it's just busyness, But if you take a moment, then the tension building in the film can grow into a wider dimension. If you just have constant tension at 80 degrees all the time you just get numb.

– From an interview between Roger Ebert and Hayao Miyazaki in 2002

I often think of how my life — busy, hectic, and occasionally overwhelming with the responsibility of fixing the world — leads to personal burnout and stress.

Stopping and finding moments of ma, where I can sit, slow down, reflect, and appreciate is immeasurably helpful at giving perspective and space in a modern world where it’s easy to succumb to the chaos.