It's in The Name

Have you ever heard about how self introductions are an indicator of your level of confidence and security in this world? An indicator of how well you're in tune with yourself? 

Do you initiate shaking hands? How firmly is your grip in the exchange? When you introduce yourself, do you say, "My name is..." or "I am..."? One of my undergrad college professors first pointed this out to me. He always introduced himself as "I'm..." and would state his full name including his prefix of Doctor. One day in a composition lesson he explained this to me, as I was putting the heading on a piece of music I was creating. 

He showed me what it meant to own your identity, and take up presence in a room, on a page, or at the coffee shop, in a lesson or on a stage. At the age of 21, I was pretty uncomfortable with taking up space like this. But I learned, eventually and finally, if you don't love who you are because of something that happened to you or a false identity someone put onto you, you will never have the life you want. And I didn't want to live like that, so I metaphorically took the red pill and followed the words of this professor to, "never stop being curious."

Here's the deal though — what our life is, is all in the name we give it, in how you present yourself and choose to relate to others. It's how you label yourself, others and life, that determine what your life is. So are those labels positive? Negative? Are they accurate? Accuracy is the most important thing here, cause it's really all in the name.

So when I say: "I'm Brooke Anne Richey" — what I'm conveying is the fullness of myself as a person and the accuracy of my "label". That being, my name is spelled with 3 "e's", where I am always correcting people about the spelling, everywhere I go. Why this matters — ownership. In life, you gotta own who you are, and if you discredit the importance of your name, your foundation...you overlook the crucial details of your character.

To err on this a bit more, the name "Brooke" or "Brook" means a stream in a forest, where water is a life source. This means, if I'm going to live in alignment with who I am, I need to be in a line of work that brings life to myself and others. I'm fluid and "go with the flow". This means I should allow my creativity and energy to flow like the variability of a stream's current throughout the different seasons in a year. As for the spelling, adding an "e" on the end is seen most often to indicate gender. The history of the name "Brook"/"Bruk" is originally a surname. It was later used as a male-gendered given name, and then eventually adopted to female-gendered given names, with the added "e" to differentiate.

This same concept goes for the pronunciation of names as well. When we do not correct people in the misrepresentation of our identities, I think we are doing ourselves a disservice, because it's then easy to enter into a conflict of reality. In other words, when you correct someone about who you are, you are boldly saying, "this is who I am". It's not a matter of defiance, power-playing or proving someone wrong, it's just a matter of accuracy and respecting yourself and relational dynamics. For example, if someone attacks your image or character, disrespecting you as a person, you can gently acknowledge to this person that you are not a punching bag or trash can by simply not reacting to the disrespect. If you are going to respond, you do so in a way that highlights the falsity of their expectation and assumption of you, which simultaneously highlights their disrespect. Basically then, if you are in alignment, your character and actions will speak for itself. When in doubt, acknowledge an incorrect label if you're being misrepresented, but don't exhaust yourself while others are coming to terms about who you really are. Allow people time to process.

When you allow people to call you whatever they think is correct, let them, but don't subject yourself to living out other people's ideals or claims if those things are not in line with who you are. The same goes for your outlook on life and what you want your life to look like.

Your name and how it is respected is the foundation of your reality. A misspelled, mis-pronounced or a falsely portrayed name is a misrepresentation of a person's character, and can be the greatest form of disrespect and/or self-abandonment. But reality is a blessing. So when you say your name, what's the first thought that comes to mind? What about when you think about your life on the greater whole? 

I hope it's positive and full of love, but most importantly, respect. 

It's in the name.

-B

(a name I love to go by)