What's in a Name?

I remember years ago hearing the story told of an African tribe that had a defined practice of welcoming in new members.

When a woman discovered she was expecting a baby she went out into the wilderness alone to listen. To listen for a song...the song of the soul of that child...for the name of that child. After a few days of listening alone, the other woman in the tribe joined her to support her in the process and sing the song with her.

Then, after the name is known and the song is heard, they return as a group to the tribe with the name and the song of this new little person. This song is sung to the child throughout the rest of the pregnancy. Then during the birth of the child the song is sung again...it's body emerging into the world surrounded by music and LOVE. THe child knows it's name and it's song. Throughout the life of this growing, emerging person this song is sung. This song is unique, one of a kind. When they need support, when they go astray, when they get lost or forget who they really are..the are sung their song...to remember...to 're-member' themselves; pull themselves together.

What I like about this story is that it honors individuality more than anything. It doesn't use guilt or shame, or pressure, or try to get the child back in any form or box. The tribe honors that each child is unique, each has a different sound, a different voice, an individual life. And it is in and through her own song, sound and name that the person is strengthened and uplifted.

I think so often in this culture, rather than lifting each other up, we subtly try to pull each other back down to earth. "Get back in line". "Who do you think you are?" "That's not the way things are done".

And yet our true friends, our true family, see us in our highest and best light. They know we can fly, they know what our potential is...and even when we struggle and get lost, they don't forget or give up on us. THey sing us our song, re-mind us without correcting us....I have been truly been blessed.

I remember the first time I heard this story I had just returned from a month at Heartwood. It was the place of my remembering, my rebirth. I remember attending my first Autumn Equinox celebration/Ceremony. As I completed the Labrynth, my first one, and set my offering down on the alter in middle and spoke words I'd never heard before. From anyone. Where they came from I can't even say....they just came out of my mouth as I knelt toward the ground and stretched out my hand, laying my small feather down. "Thank you, Mother Earth, for waking me up from a bad dream and a long slumber...and singing me the song of my soul." It rather caught me off guard..."What the heck did that mean?" Yet...I knew they were true.

So when I heard this story told a short time later, I recognized it within myself...I had heard MY song...and it saved me.

Now as my daughter Courtney sits, this baby growing inside, I see her listening in her own way...and I sense she is beginning to hear. I honor that process within her and am humbled at her humility, her strength...and resolve to honor the individuality of this soul...coming to our family....and may we all, his family, honor him for just who he is.