March 7, 2013
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reinvent my name
If you could reinvent my name,
well if you could redirect my day.I have different names. The name matters.
At school, I am Mrs. Sunshine. In many ways, kids treat me as such because it is expected. Of course they treat me a certain way because I’m still Promise, no matter what title I’m given. Ha. You may thrust proper-ness upon me, but that doesn’t mean I will be it. And I get hugs. Which is why I work.
Just kidding. I have altruistic and financial reasons for working too.At the art studio gig, I am Promise (or sometimes Miss Promise or Mrs. Promise or the kids who know me from school call me Mrs. Sunshine through habit.) And I like that. I’m not stuffy. At art camp, we’re all there to have fun. The kids listen to what I have to say, eventually but not necessarily as an authority (snort), but because I’m the key to knowing what’s happening.
As for my friends’ kids, I let the other adults make the call on names. Secretly though, when the kids call me Mrs. Sunshine I think “what nice manners” but when they call me Promise it makes my heart happy.
Best name though? The one my own kids call me. LLO was away for a couple days at her grandparents. I wasn’t about to leave her alone for 7 hours while I did art camp and it’s easier- much- not to have her with me. In any case, she was gone too long. We held hands all Tuesday night and I just kept staring at her. She’s still my LLO but she is growing up so much. I’m glad that I’m “Mommy”. That name is packed with history. I hope they call me Mommy when they are all grown up.
*Oh my goodness. That was just the cutest thing ever. Spawn has been away all week looking for Jesus in Pittsburgh- I mean on a mission trip with church. She just called home (yup after 10pm) to talk to her sister. Luckily I have given up long ago on LLO going to bed at a time appropriate for her age, so she was awake. It was quite a lovefest. Everybody crying. Including me. But I cry over rainbows and commercials, so that isn’t so shocking. In any case. So. Freaking. Cute. This house was too quiet. I give them 30 minutes before they are fighting tomorrow evening. But I’m ready for her to be home.
#winsh 37. Take a line from one of the following songs and create a piece using the line as a title or an epigraph. King of Spain ( Tallest Man on Earth)
Comments (29)
I love the sunshiney posts that are filled with promise. You do fit your name. Good to see you doing more of the scavenger hunt.
This is very sweet. I always wanted to be interesting enough to be given a nickname.
The only people who call me Mr. Heathen are those I’d rather not hear from at all.
This is just a thousand kinds of sweetness. I might have a cavity.
My mom and her siblings, ranging from 69 to 57, still call my grandma “Mommy.” Sometimes Ma or Mom but when talking about her they often say Mommy.
@HappierHeathen - those kinds of people sometimes call me mrs. crotch and mrs. cooch and then i hang up on them. because honestly if you aren’t willing to make a reasonable guess at a name, i ain’t giving you any money. (well, i’m not giving anyone any money anyhow.)
@lanney - i haven’t had a nickname since high school
@songoftheheart - i’m on it.
We occasionally got catalogs addressed to Mr. or Mrs. Weany.
@lanney - completely justifiable. ok. i’m gonna giggle myself off the chair.
snort
I am a southern born woman by birth, and we, “Kids,” are in our 60s except for one older and one ten years younger, but we all cry easily, and we weep most at saying goodbye to each other. We sob in grief, and we too, must take the tissues in to movies, and I have finally learned to fight it no longer, crying in joy, crying in sorrow. My guess is that you will be like my friend, Marrianne who thought, “Teenagers,” were the cutest anf the funniest people on earth; At least that is my hope for you, because with that age group a ray of sunshine lights up the night.
Love, and All Blessings,
Barbara Everett Heintz, Author, “Pinkhoneysuckle,” which follows a child then woman through her years of the southern Appalachian Diaspora — When dirt farmers were forced north to the Rust Belt cities.
I like all your different names…they shout you!!!
I like calling you “SweetC” because you are sweeter than any candy!!!
I will NOT list any of my nicknames here!!!
Best part of this post…the LLO/Mommy part! I got tears in my eyes reading that part. And only a daughter can say “Mommy” in so many different ways!
HUGS!!!
At least you’re not the horse with no name… what kind of song is that anyways….
aawww so sweet
I think this little mini pretty much says it all. To which I’m going to add an ‘Awwww.’ This brought such a smile just because of the memories it brought forth to gooder times when the kids were little before divorces & all that other nonsense took place. You are one very lucky lady, Carrie. I’m happy for your happy.
you are too darling
@leaflesstree - sorry for the tooth decay.
@adamswomanback - i keep my sugar level pretty high through the application of jelly beans and twizzlers.
@DislocatedTexan@ireallylikefood - and the horse i rode in on. hello there. haven’t seen you in a while.
@MzSilver - i sure am lucky. i’m glad for the good memories. hugs, peggy sue.
@SisterMae -
@godfatherofgreenbay - aw thanks.
@starmanjones - :D
You have a very sweet name, for a very sweet lady, Mrs. Promise
Awwwww sisters. I wish I had one growing up. I just had my brother and we were ten years apart so I was practically raising him. LOL, 30 minutes eh?
So, is your name really Mrs. Promise Sunshine? hehehe That is cute, but I’m guessing perhaps a nickname, right?
names do matter….yours is perfect! My grandson calls me Ma Moon, how special is that
@DislocatedTexan@ireallylikefood - a desert song
@mlbncsga - i love it.
@olwd - i didn’t have sisters until i grew up and found them. (and then they moved away and/or live far away.)
@BoulderChristina - shucks.
*promise*…. love hearing that one, your being called that. makes my heart ping too. : ) damn, i’ve missed you. but i’m still gonna write. don’t want to lose the newly-acquired technique. i can see from the last photo i saw that katie is getting all grown up. and sisters will be sisters, but they’ll be a whole lot closer than they already are as the years roll by.
@be_the_rain - i’m saving your letters. they are beautiful. still deciding what to do with the transcript from duma key. and i’ll keep writing too. a letter in the mail is better than christmas.
As always love reading your posts. I cry easy too.
Love the names – I’ve been called many names. Some were welcome and others not so much… Mommy is a wonderful name. Then again there is “moooth – er” which is what I was called more regularly. Now that they are more mature it is mom.
I have read this over and over this morning. I don’t have the right words to say except that it is heart warming and thought provoking. Thank you.
As a person with common nouns as my proper name, I think about naming quite a lot. I joke with my friends about the definition of my name… Starr = flaming ball of gas
I am very interested to see how the “mama” word changes meaning for me over the years.
@oceanstarr - your given name is perfect for you. it didn’t take very long to know that. two things that are endless, open, beautiful and wishful.
regarding my real name. when i was young, i was so frustrated with it. the popular spelling was with a k and everyone had y’s and i’s at the end of their names. and maybe it wasn’t until someone said it so that it floated around in the sky that i loved my name too. he still says it that way.
@promisesunshine - I used to wish my name was “Amanda” when I was little and everyone else had “real” names, but over the years I’ve come to appreciate it. I wonder sometimes if I would have been an artist if I hadn’t gone through the teasing over my name as a child.
There is something about the way a name feels kind of safe and warm in the way a loving person says it.
Well I’m pretty sure I don’t have “blood” sisters but I do have some that would do anything for me, and I for them.