By Any Other Name

I've been thinking about changing the name of the blog for a few months now.  

The old name, 40:8 and Me, worked.  I liked it, but didn't love it.  I wrote about why I chose that name in this post, but to give a quick explanation... it was for the psalm.  More specifically, this part of one man's interpretation of the psalm: 

Want to know God’s will for your life?  Then answer this question: What ignites your heart? Forgotten orphans?  Untouched nations?  The inner city?  The outer limits?

Heed the fire within!

I wanted to be prompted to think about "the fire" daily.  

It worked, for the most part.  But it lost meaning somewhere along the way, and for, I think, good reason:  I started to automatically think this way.  I have a lot of bad days.  Probably more bad than good.  But numerous times throughout each day, I think about what I believe I'm supposed to be doing and I try to figure out how to do it.  And, I have become really, really good at remembering that every other person I meet is also called to do something, is also meant to "heed the fire within."  It's made me love people with greater ease.  It's made me the kind of person who works to help other people do what they love to do.  

That's a pretty damn good outcome from a blog name.  

The problem?  

I focus more on thinking about what I should be doing instead of doing what I should be doing.  Thinking about 40:8 started to become more of a passive thing instead of an active one, if that makes sense.  (Well, and if it doesn't.  It makes sense to me.)  And so I didn't think it was something that could last and that could speak to my current life and to el futuro.  I felt like I needed a new name that would do those things.  

And this is when I reveal how nutty I am.  The reason for the new name.  

I think most people have baby names picked out, regardless of whether or not they know they want kids and regardless of when they think they want kids.  I think that's pretty normal.  But I like thinking about baby names probably too much, and when I sat and tried to figure out why, 

Green turtle necks are IN. 

I realized it's because I like to think of a super shiny, fun, nice future.  That's not a bad thing usually.  But when you only think about a pretend future and don't do anything NOW because you're not a fan of your current life and you're definitely definitely not a fan of your past, it's probably bad.

So I did what any other kind of weird person would do and decided that the new blog name could be one of the names I like.  It's not meant as a blog to a future child(ren), though Liz pointed out that a future kid could read it.  So it's like an added aspect, not the point.  It's also not meant to be an alter-ego.  Using a baby name is sort of like a symbol that I shouldn't only be imagining a nice future - I should also be trying to make a nice now.  You know?  A little weird?  Whatever.

And because of that meaning, I think it's something that will always be relevant.  I know a name can't be everything and can't make me happy but if I'm going to use this blog to chronicle my efforts at something better, the name of it is going to mean something.

__
Charlotte