Namely;

On the day of your birth, your parents spew out something they call a name and hand it over to you.  They will hand it to you on a platter of happiness, sometimes on a platter of memories so your face will become the slideshow that vividly helps them revisit decades of struggles. Your first responsibility is to carry your name, hold it fragile because this is where your ego and reputation lies. It sticks to you more than spirogyras on a wall, becomes the identity the world and everyone who lived in it will mark you with. Your name will carry your success as well as your failures. You pass it down to your kin, it will outlive you even in days when your memory forgets what it feels like to be identified by something, and for others you will shed it down and pick up that of another when your body is ripe and much-room enough for someone else to live in. You might love it and sometimes you might hate it, wanting to be like the other kids whose names would sound and taste like pizza, yummy and endearing. But yet you understand that with different faces comes different tasks.

Everyone calls you your name; your parents call you your name. Friends call you your name. The school, church calls you your name. The only one who doesn’t call you your name is your mirror; it calls you by your reflection. Maybe your mirror knows you too well it speaks directly to your soul, maybe only your mirror will ever know the lifespan of time and how judicious every second ought to be spent, maybe only your mirror as inanimate as it may seem is the only living thing in the block, maybe you are your mirror. So sit with it, until the silence wraps you both and the only thing you hear is your name, birthing into your ears through whispers. Let this name remind you of persistence, let this name remind you of faith no matter how distasteful it may taste to you or anyone else, let this name remind you of forgiveness and the wisdom of walking light. Let this name remind you that you will melt impossibilities and create paths for you, those to come out of you and even those who dare come in contact with you. Let this name remind you that you are deserving of every pinch of love it inhales, that you are deserving of every healing nature throws at your feet. Let this name remind you that you are hurricane, a whirlwind on a stroll gently conquering territories your fathers and ancestors could only but dream about, so what happens when you run?. Let this name remind you that your body is not a warzone, so you set peace to the inner demons, sweep out the dead bodies inside and flush them into a sewage called past.  That your body is no apology for those who cannot pronounce you correctly; that you are no asylum for those too timid to face their fears, those who bit their tongues while trying to call you can keep trying till they pass the test and those with accents shouldn’t misplace the flavor your name brings neither should they make you sound like a taboo. Let this name remind you that God is good, that life is a curriculum but you can alter the syllabus because you are the orchestrator of your fate unless, you hand the privilege to someone else, let this name remind you of all the positivities this world could ever contain. How deep is that for an intimacy?