Ma is generally thought of as a shortened name for the mother in the family as in mama. But there are other uses for ma as in gauging your mental age. According to this below, I am 12.
And of course the state of Massachusetts is abbreviated as Ma. And let us not forget the learned folks with a Master of Art, MA that goes with their title.
My favorite use though refers to the matriarch of the family which is usually the grandmother, normally referred to as grandma, as that is what I am, a grandma. Generally it is the first grandchild that sets the precedence of what the grandparents are called unless of course the grandparents have something to say about that or in the lucky marvelous situation with multiple grandparents still alive and being enjoyed.
In my siblings situation, my sister was the first to have children so my parents were chosen by the first grandchild to be called Ma and Pa as Grandma or Grandpa was too hard to get out, and the grand was dropped. Actually it was my father who was first named as my nephew was asked who that man was and he was certain that it was Pa. The standard was set for my parents.
When you get into the grandma names, the variation are amazing. Some off the top of my head that I have heard are:
grandma, granny, gamaw, memaw, mimi, and we cant leave out the formal grandmother.
It’s all fun stuff and movies depict these women from sweet ladies that have mastered the kitchen to power matriarchs that dare you to breathe.
As we go through this life remember we generally don’t get but one chance to show our inner love and peace as the Stream of Consciousness icon displays, so let’s embrace the peace and love of family and be that cookie baking and sweet loving grandma.
And in closing, I remind all the wonderful opportunity we have in sharing kindness. Express the kindness we envision with love towards all creatures and warm cookies from the oven only like grandma.
For the Love of 
A fun post. 🙂
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