Names

When my parents retired, they sold their house and bought a large RV so they could travel and satisfy my father’s wanderlust to see the country. Before long, they decided to stop traveling and bought an RV lot in one of the senior resort parks in Arizona. My dad, who always wanted to have a leadership role anywhere he was, soon became the volunteer postal administrator at the RV park.

His favorite postal admin task was finding the intended recipients of a particular kind of mail. These were letters from children with envelopes addressed simply to “Grandma and Grandpa.” No last name. And although the return address spot on the envelopes sometimes had a street address, they lacked a family name.

His responsibility was to open those letters and read the name of the child in the “Love, Amy” or “Love, Billy” (or whatever name) at the end of the letter. He would then walk around the park visiting people and asking if they had a grandchild named Amy, Billy, etc. and find the rightful owners of the letters, who were understandably thrilled to get those letters.

Names are more than necessary labels to indicate ownership. Often, names have significant meanings.

When Amrit Kirpalani and I were writing our book, Something More!, he shared with me that Amrit means “nectar.” Nectar is the sweetening part of a plant that attracts insects or birds that pollinate plants. I immediately pictured the bees and hummingbirds zooming from flower to flower among my backyard plants, pollinating plants. Pollination has far-reaching impacts. Much of the food we eat comes from plants pollinated by bees. Pollination is actually essential for our survival.

It works the same way with people; our actions pollinate the lives of people with whom we come in contact. What can you do today that can help make your life or someone else’s life more satisfactory and sweeter, like nectar?

© 2022. Kathleen Goolsby. All rights reserved.