M is a delicious letter, it just is. M for more.

I could snack on it.

So when Rally M showed up, I was more than ready for it, since it was pretty much guaranteed to be yummy. And hot.

Which it was, of course. It was a very, very special Rally, as Lucky Lola could tell you. She probably won’t since what happens at Rally (Rally!) stays at Rally, so for now you will have to trust us: it was marvelous.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

It’s the best M word. Everyone knows that.

Sometimes a hum and sometimes a moan, and everything in between.

Since there are far too many magical M words to even attempt to play with them all, I’ve chosen eight for a compass. And then I’ll thrown in some more, because mmmmmmmmmmmm, more….

So here we go. The compass of Mmmmmmmmmmm.

North: Melody.

Melodies, internal and external.

Heeding the whisper. Feeling the pull. Listening, or not-listening as the case may be, until it returns, which it always does.

Od chozer hanigun…. “the melody still returns that you tried in vain to neglect”. That lovely, haunting poem by Natan Alterman which was turned into a song by Berry Sakharof, layers and layers and layers of memories….

Melody-memories.

Melodies are like threads. And they can be happy-happy or sad-sad or happy-sad, or all at the same time, ever changing. Here’s to the melody, and its ability to change.

Northeast: Malleable.

See? Everything changes. Everything ends, and that is the nature of life: look, it is changing, right now, and so are you, and so am I, and this is okay.

There are two ways to deal with this, but only one of them works: be adaptable.

Permission to feel all the things I’m feeling about this thing that is changing and reconfiguring. Permission to not like the feelings or the change or the fact that it is changing. And baby, this is how it is. Let me adapt.

Let me adapt and let my beautiful neural pathways be wonderfully malleable, ever-changing, as I build new connections, new trails to follow. Release rigidity. Add a little sway. Malleability is a magical quality.

East: May.

It is the word of questions and the word of prayers, and the month when all the flowers are here.

May is permission, literally. May is warmth. May is doors opening.

Southeast: Marveling.

It is so very, very easy to go through life with a busy head full of stories about everything that is wrong, might go wrong, was wrong, all the he-said-she-said wheel-churning of thinky-thoughts. I do this too.

And, at the same time…

There is so much to marvel over, wonder at, delight in.

It requires pausing. Being with the red lights. Stopping is important because this is where you can see a moment, praise a moment.

Marveling can be a bliss-state and a glee-state and all the best flavors of surprise. It can be playful, childlike and it can also be slow and sexy. Marveling over skin, touch, silk, sensation. Marveling is for abject sensualists, the lovers of life.

Yoga, for me, is how I remember to marvel. It’s the time I take to get quiet enough to marvel over the floor that supports me, the breath that moves through me: hello, spine, you marvelous miracle, hello, hello, forgotten places, I breathe recognition and let the light in.

Marveling is a door into my thank-you heart. And rest is a door into marveling.

South: Miracles.

Mmmmmmmmmmm, miracles.

I have so much to say about this that I can’t actually say anything but thank you.

Come in, come in, miracles small and large. And: come in, come in, my ability to appreciate them.

Southwest: Mesmerizing.

Mesmerized by miracles and marveling. Mesmerized by beauty, color, texture, fragrance, life and aliveness.

Mmmmmmmmm.

West: Magnification.

Seeing what is there.

Seeing what was there all along, except my attention wasn’t at the right place, so I couldn’t see it. Bringing a piece of a pattern into the light. Zooming in and zooming out. Perspective. Clues revealing themselves.

Exponential growth.

Also I just like the way this word feels in my mouth.

Northwest: Movement.

Movement and also: momentum.

Movement like gazelle state, and movement like a revolution, and movement as in recognizing that everything is moving and changing all the time, because this is what it means to be a part of the dynamic flow of life.

Potential to kinetic…here we go.

Mmmmmm, other magnificent M words.

Momentum. Matriculate. Madrigal. Modular. Mayhem. Mellifluous. Muchness. Magical. Mischief. Mystical. Music. Mystery. Mission! I love going on secret missions. More. Most. Macadamia.

Mechanics, as in the mechanics of how something works, not the people, though I have known some lovely mechanics, so maybe we will include them too.

Also: Messages, secret. And missives, secret. Magnolia and mums. Merry. Macaroons. Missing you. Mirror, as in reflecting, and a wonderful verb. Magnitude. Merengue.

M is for Memory, among other things. Memory and remembering. Remembering what is true: that all these beautiful qualities are not separate from us. I can close my eyes and breathe them, remember my way back in.

May it be so! And come play with me.

Thank you, letter M.

If you want to whisper words or sound effects that start with M, go for it. If you want to enjoy some less common M words (magniloquent! malaxate!), take a peek here….

If you want to share in any of the qualities and magical words I named here, you can.

They work like the salves in the Friday Chicken: just take some, there is always more.

Whispering loving spells that begin with M, for myself, and for anyone who wants…