Nomenclator

     Naming our four children wasn't easy for us.  My favorites, Annika and Silas, were soundly rejected by Bryan.  We both loved Emma, yet you won't find an Emma in our house.  You will find Kara.  Her name wasn't on a list at all; it belonged to her all in an instant.
     Naming a blog was easier, but brought back memories of all the pressures inherent in naming.  You want a name to express so much, to encompass who you are and a whole host of  future hopes.
     My favorite idea is already taken, and I was hung up on that for awhile.  How could I go on when the perfect name was already taken?  I moved on to Psalm 84 and the idea of a swallow nesting by the altars of God.  But the name just wasn't coming and discussion degenerated into phrases like, "Surely goodness and lovingkindness will swallow me all the days of my life."  We moved on to Isaiah 44 and poplars by streams of water.  Blossoming Poplar was floated, which I liked, liking Tulip Poplar trees, but had to pass on because I didn't want the name to exalt my own life.  Someone else needs to be exalted here.
    Sam was an idea factory.  Running Rabbit, except I don't have much to do with rabbits.  Anything to do with rabbits.  Or Homeschooler at Large, except I want to write about a fair bit more than just homeschooling.
     In the end it was Bryan who named the blog.  He was the perfect winner.  He has been the encourager.  The force moving me to act and stop thinking.  That his idea sits in the header is absolutely right.  It proves how well he knows me and what I want in life.
     A nomenclator is one who assigns names.  It is from the Latin, literally a slave reminding his master of  names of the people they meet.  Except, of course, he's not my slave.  But we walk together and whisper those quiet words of assistance in the other's ear.  Bryan, the nomenclator.