Named Anew

Soon -  as in 3 days from now - my nominal identity will undergo a change. As I vow a covenant that I hope will last 100 years, I willfully and excitedly lose my old self and put on a new. For a metaphor junkie, this a pretty appealing transformation.

My mother-to-be (my affectionate wording for mother-in-law) asked if I was at all sad to part with it. Growing up, Hyatt was a sort of synonym for toughness. We actually have a home video of my sister when she was no more than 3 years old with stringy blonde curls, naked, playing duck-duck-goose in our living room. She stumps her toe, begins to whimper into a cry. Very determinately, in his little-girl voice, my dad says, "Noooo. Don't cry, you're a Hyatt." And thus a name embodied a family attitude that continues to this day.

But it's time. I feel like I've molted my skin, and I'm naked and baking in the sun. It's time to grow a new skin. I'm past the point of being ready for this transition. Oddly enough, before I fell in love with him, I loved him. That's a proclamation not many can herald. But when you meet someone who is everything you knew to hope for, then you realize they're everything you prefer, and they equally enjoy you... well there's not much else to do but promise to make it last a lifetime sealed with a few kisses. Taking on a name with that kind of a story is an honor to say the least.

And so soon I shall be the newest Olivia Groves. I say "newest," because he has a 10-year-old little diva, rainbow-looming cousin who has very insistently self-identified herself to me as "Olivia #1," followed by, "You can be my back up!" Nevertheless, I join the ranks of a pretty incredible namesake.

Maybe one day I'll change how I say it. Olivia may age into Livy as I wrinkle and grow gray. For now, my significance of an "olive tree" morphs from my singular entity rather to a whole grove of them. As two become one, as we multiply through ministry and build a family, the grove will grow. From it many heads will be crowned, in it many quiet days will be spent, with it we will furnish and feed as each of us are pressed and poured into the finest of oil. Pardon me for perhaps outstretching this imagery, but I can't help but think I am gaining the most incredibly symbolic nominal treasure!

Enjoy the blog makeover!

O.G.