Marvellous M

I have so been enjoying other people's lovely lists of favourites inspired by a single letter of the alphabet and requested a letter to shape a list of my own. M is what I was granted by the delightful Kerstin.

Strangely, M did not resonate with me immediately and the very first word that sprang to mind was marsupial. I do love marsupials but of all the M words in the world, I have no idea why that was the first place my head went with it! Anyway, I mused on it for a while and slowly meaningful Ms started to multiply in my mind and merged into a list... Quite a long list actually. M obviously has a bigger place in my life than I first imagined. 

Here are the first 10 favourites that appeared on that list:

marsupial - what's not to like? They are fairly bizarre in design, often eccentric in their habits and frequently very cute. All great characteristics. I love that evolution created these creatures. Holding a baby koala is one of the sweetest experiences I've ever had.

muse - both the noun and verb forms of this word are meaningful to me. I love to muse, as in meditate, consider, dream and wonder about things. I am probably guilty of a bit too much of this. I spend a lot of time in my head. And then, of course, there is a muse (an inspirational mortal) and a Muse (one of three or nine goddess spirits depending on which mythology one subscribes to) whose role is to inspire creative souls and lift them to great heights. I am seldom visited by a muse of this kind, but I certainly see evidence of their influence in the amazing creative talents and expressions of others. This interesting talk by Elizabeth Gilbert touches on similar themes and in particular speaks about how one might deal with the genius of the muse not being present.

muesli - love, love, love it. With yoghurt or milk, perhaps a smidgen of honey, and fresh fruit - cereal heaven.  I could have it for breakfast, lunch or dinner (and quite often do). When I was a child my mother used to make muesli for us with raw and toasted rolled oats and nuts and lovely dried fruit and I think that I am still searching for one that tastes quite as good as hers. These are my current favourites.

magic and mystery - I like that not everything in the world, or that happens to us, has observable cause or is easy to explain through pure logic and rationality. I don't believe in the supernatural necessarily but just that, like electricity, there are things that occur that seem magical and mysterious on the surface. We can't see what causes the light bulb to light up but we know it's there because the bulb lights up. I know it's only waves that create those incredible patterns in the sand but how they are so intricate and beautiful is magical to me. A spiral shell. A feather. Mysterious and magical in their symmetry and perfection. Coincidence and, even better, serendipity is an example of this that I experience regularly too. It's a realm where intuition and being open to discovery thrives, and I like that.

meniscus - this (and the word osmosis) stuck with me from my school sciences and I love the feel and sound of the word itself as well as to see how the forces on the surface of a liquid create droplets, or support a floating object, or draw the champagne up the side of a glass. Again, it's scientifically explicable but also magical to me.

memory - how amazing that we have this capacity to have an existence in the moment but also over time build a picture, a life, that is layered and textured and coloured by memories. And that we can draw on these to relive happy times and gather close to us people we love who are far away and perhaps no longer even alive. A scent triggers a memory of my grandmother, for example, and in an instant I recall her face, her hands, her strong but gentle spirit that always supported me, and I am even happier in that moment because of it. I don't believe in dwelling in memories to the exclusion of living in the moment, but I would hate to be without them. Some are vague and ghostly and others intense and vivid - most are emotionally laden. I gather the triggers for mine in colours and fragrances, journals and photographs and objects, and now in my blog too.  I do so unconsciously but also consciously because my memory is increasingly fragile and precious details can be lost.

metamorphosis - I think it's true for me to say that I am in an almost constant state of change. Most people are to greater or lesser extent. Some more consciously than others. Some more willingly than others. But metamorphosis is more than that, isn't it? Metamorphosis is about CHANGE. A big, deep, fundamentally altering transition from one state to another. The sort of change that you can't go back from. Butterflies have always been a central motif for me (hence the name of this blog, for instance) and I believe that I have metamorphosed more than once in my life. There are defining moments that have - sometimes for reasons beyond my control - catapulted me through a phase of change like this and that have left me almost entirely different when I emerged out the other side. Unlike the change that a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly, or the move from one season to another, my changes have been mostly on the inside (although a few more grey hairs and wrinkles attest to some of it on the outside) but they are no less fundamental and profound for it. It's not always an easy process (sometimes downright painful) and I have often wished that I could curl into a chrysalis to undergo it, but usually it turns out okay in the end, and sometimes even for the best.

mythology - I LOVE a good story. Fiction or non-fiction, a narrative does something for me that little else can. And they come in many forms - legends, folktales, contemporary, historical, universal, personal - and many formats - novels, biographies, short-stories, plays, screenplays, poems, dances, diaries, water-cooler anecdotes...  And myths, which are expressed in many of these formats, are some of my favourite stories. I love the classical mythologies (see above). They thrilled me in my youth and they thrill me now. I think the true meaning of myth requires that it is culturally specific, traditional, and includes some reference to the supernatural or deities but I think of them more broadly. For me they are simply stories that seek to explain our world and our place in the world, especially those aspects that are hard to explain entirely rationally. And although this usually refers to things on a societal level, I think we can (and do) create our own personal mythologies too. I think that myths are still being created - by families, by communities, and by individuals, don't you? 

meringues - love these so much but can't for the life of me make them. How is it possible that I can't master a recipe of just two ingredients?! They never turn out just right for me - crisp and light and just a teeny bit chewy in the middle. I recall being so determined that I made six batches for a dinner party once before serving something entirely different for dessert. My Nana - a meringue master - assured me it was my oven that was at fault for not maintaining an even temperature but I was so scarred by the experience that it took me nearly 5 years before I even tried again. Better, but still not what I'd call a success. So now, I don't even try. I leave this, like many other things, to those who have mastered the art and I buy them freshly-made from a local bakery. Love them with a creamy filling, or with fresh fruit (berries are my favourite combo), or both (combined in an Eton mess), as baked alaska, or on top of a lemon meringue tart... Yummy.

mosaics - you might have noticed, I have a bit of a penchant for these. Always have had.  Ever since I can remember I've created them with paper cutout images and glue. But the advent of digital photography for my own images and the discovery of Flickr, and all the wonderful expressive creativity there, as well as being able to compile them electronically into these mosaics means they've recently opened up into a whole new form of expression for me. And the process of creating them often clears and calms and focuses my mind, like a mediation. Also a good M word.

So that's ten. A bit of an odd and random list I feel but the first ten Ms that occurred to me as meaningful, in a good way. I discarded a few less than happy ones like mediocre, mundane and mugger but other personally significant Ms that floated up included: metallic, music, mountains, meerkat, mohair, mother, meander, Myanmar, Mandela, mandala, mellifluous, malapropism, memento, magazines, movies, mellow, melancholy, mead, mulled wine, mozzarella, mushrooms, mazarine, multimedia, manifest, morning... I also have a very dear friend whose name begins with M. 

And there you have it, an M list for an M'day - I must admit, in my current 9-5 existence, not one of my favourite M words. Wishing you a very happy Monday nevertheless.

P.S. If you'd like to play, pick a letter, or ask me and I'll be happy to pick one for you...

[Flickr credits]