THE NAME, THE IDENTITY
Yesterday during a conversation with some friends the issue of names came up, and the custom that some people have of shortening them (I include myself, I do it instinctively).
This topic has made me reflect, I remember that not long ago I belonged to the group of people who are bothered to shorten their names, or change them, or mispronounce them. It bothered me a lot.
I never liked to have my name shortened, in fact I gave my daughters names that were difficult to shorten: Maia and Claudia. Even so Claudia was called Clau in Barcelona (Key, in Catalan), and now in the United States they call her Cloud (Cloud, in English) ... nice references by the way.
When I came to live in the United States, now almost 3 years ago, the first thing I experienced was a change of name, it was a girl in a Starbucks in Phoenix ... Elvirta wrote in the coffee cup.
That was only the beginning of a sequence of singular names in which I heard myself named. Since I am in the United States I am Alvaira, Elvirta, Elvita, Elveera, Vita ... etc. At first it bothered me, then I looked at the situations and began to find them fun ... I stopped clinging to a name and began to mix with the people who named, that decision gave rise to an eternal dance of my BEING with the BEING that names me.
Then Facebook arrived and with it a whole world of new friends from all over the planet ... so now I am also Elvi, Viri, Elvirilla, Elvira also of course, and some name me with the long paternal last name: Lopez del Prado.
There are times when we need to strengthen our own name, precisely to reaffirm our identity, and as human beings, we need identity. But let's not stop there, let's continue the path releasing our firm beliefs.
Every time I decide not to be offended because they name me differently than I name myself, I become more flexible, I open my eyes a little more towards the BEING and identify myself a little with my personality.
In fact, the fact of clinging to a name is fear of losing identity comes from living from PERSONALITY and not from BEING.
I have found out something beautiful about this, the way each one has to name me is a gift from them to me, because they do it from their own universes, it is how they see you through their gaze, it's poetry.
A flower has its own name in Latin ... but according to the country the tradition is named with thousands of names but it is still the same flower change me the name a thousand times a thousand, I will remain t .
By how many names do we know God? Each one names him according to his heart, his vibration, his gaze, his love.
Elvira López del Prado
Elvira Lopez del Prado
www.lopezdelprado.com
www.flickr.com/photos/elviralopezdelprado/
