The gift of Ma
It's deeper than you might think
This week, I’m getting back to a practice I once loved: each week, exploring a word that’s found its way into the zeitgeist. I’m taking some inspiration from my prolific friend, who is doing a version of this in her wonderful publication, THE CRONE YEARS - Essays on Getting Wise, by Sylvia Jaunzarins.
It always gets me thinking about connections to the world, both insular and at large, and often metaphors for life’s deeper meanings.
As always, would love to hear your thoughts.
Words have power. Use them well.
This week's word: Ma
Ma. This may seem an obvious choice for today, Mother’s Day. And, it is. But it has another meaning that is particularly apropos for life in this world right now. So, let’s discuss both.
Ma. What a nurturing word.
Ma is a noun, an informal word meaning “mother.” Mom. Mommy. Mammy. Mama. Mum. Mater.
“Dear Ma: I get it now. Love, Me” – unknown (unless you’re my Ma)
It’s true. I’ve been blessed with a wise and loving mother. A mom who always made me feel like a priority. And I understand more each day what it means to be a kind, empowered woman because she was and is a living example, even as her health continues to decline, she is grounded in her center and what she loves. I draw upon that inner strength more than ever now.
“We are born of love. Love is our mother.” – Rumi
My mind was also captured this week by another meaning for Ma.
Ma is a Japanese concept that defines a living aesthetic which regards open or negative space.
Ma is the time and latitude that life requires in order to grow. The Japanese say, “If we have no time, if our space is restricted, we cannot grow. How we spend our time and shape the space in which we live directly impacts our progress.”
Ma depicts the purposeful gaps. The in-between times, the pauses, the intentional emptiness, where there is room to expand new thought. To cultivate, to create, to experience the small moments of life.
Both forms of “Ma” hold us in the same essential way — with open arms, with room to breathe, with the grace of not rushing us toward anything.
Think of how a mother’s presence can feel like space itself: the safety that doesn’t crowd you, the love that doesn’t demand you be something other than what you are. When we were small, Ma was the warm emptiness we ran back to. The pause before she answered. The quiet comfort of her lap.
Perhaps that is why this life concept of Ma feels so familiar when we finally encounter it and choose it. We have already lived inside it. We were held by it before we had language for it.
And now, what if we could offer that same quality of Ma to ourselves? To the overfull calendar, the crowded mind, the life that has forgotten how to exhale? Breathing new life into the empty space isn’t absence. It’s the most ancient form of presence we know.
“Ma is the emptiness full of possibilities, like a promise yet to be fulfilled.” – Yukiko Kusaki, Japanese writer
Being in the state of Ma broadens your view, pulls back, and offers a more vast perspective, where the whole and the parts are equal. Breathe some new life in there. The idea is not to fill the space quickly, but to consider, pause, and then consider and pause some more. Celebrate the sparse, pristine, quiet moments. Less is more.
So often we are rush, rush, rush; more, more, more; fill the void and empty space, the silences. Waiting for the next thing. We, as a culture, are not comfortable with pauses, breaks in the conversation, or long moments between sentences. “Awkward pause” is real.
One of my meditation teachers says if you’re in a constant state of waiting, you’re not fully present. So, if we’re continually waiting for something to happen or to end, or when we do have some empty space, we fill it with inconsequential or negative thoughts and things, are we missing our lives?
Take a few moments today and this week to gift yourself the state of Ma.
Happy Mother’s Day, Mama, and to all the Mas!
Something to think about.
Journal Prompt
Prompt: Explore the notion of Ma. Where would you like more space? And time. And, consideration. Pause and go there. Notice what you fill your time and space with. Perhaps let some go.
Explore Abundant Creation Journals for a lovely variety of pages to record your thoughts.
Recent reads:
I hope you have a great week filled with Ma. And kindness.
With love,
For the past 17 years (God, has it actually been that long?!) I have been without my Ma and how I wish she were still here to help me navigate - but what I have come to realize is that as much as I miss her, how blessed I am to have had her in my life for the time that I did - and if we are lucky enough, our mothers taught us the strength and resilience to learn to mother ourselves. I can just hear my mom saying "I may have provided you the wings, but it's you who has to take flight." Thanks for the wings Ma...
And wishing a Happy Mother's Day to Jane ♥️♥️♥️
Lovely. ❤️