WHAT'S IN a NAME?

Where does a name come from?

Most often it is one that is given to us at birth, at times parents wait awhile to give a name, at others names are bestowed by loved ones or for loved ones. My name has been nothing short of the same.

My birth name is a name I have seldom gone by except for the elementary school years and only from teachers or people who did not know me outside of school. My full is Laura Tamara Wichman. My father naming me Laura, my mother naming me Tamara. However, my mother had always intended to name me Tamra as I was named after a person she dearly appreciated.

As I said, seldom has anyone ever called me Laura, especially since elementary school, and my parents during a stern moment; and it was always yelled out Laura Tamara to be exact. My family is a family of names, multiple names, and when I was little my papa called me Tambo Rambo for the way that I marched about the house. When I went to school when I was five, I told the teacher my name was Tambo to what she replied we will call you Tammy. It took my mother six months to realize that I was talking about myself in third person when I would tell her what this girl Tammy had been up to at school all day.

For the entirety of my elementary experience I was both Tammy at home and Laura at school. When I went to junior high I decided that everyone would call me Tammy, there was a jaunt in time that I told folks I had a twin named Laura and I actually played it out. From that point forward no one really new that Tammy wasn't my name. I remembered thinking about how I would call myself Tamra when I got older. I never really thought about when that would all happen. I was L.Tammy in College and Tammy in these recent years of my professional life.

Tea Whey or Tea Minchwa are all just synonyms of my imagination, my mind and my life. Facebook has hardly until maybe now seemed real, pseudo names were my response to a world that I didn't really feel was tangible. Both names are from my actual name and initials TW, Tea for Tammy or Tamra, Whey for Wichman, and Minchwa is actually an anagram for my last name. Mark Twain had 42 pen names for his writing so I figure I could have another 30 at least.

I have a number of various names that my family and friends have given me over the years TamTam, Tamasutra, LT, TamStam, Tambalamb, Tamatha and on and on, essentially adding Tam to various names. 

So Why TamRa Wich'Ma now?

Well, like I said above I knew at some point I wanted go by TamRa, but when? Well, I had a commitment ceremony for myself on my birthday on the Summer Solstice, in which I wrote a declaration to myself (check it out below). In that declaration I wanted to stand in my power and in my boldness, I knew at that point the name shift was coming. Friends and Family had already started to encourage the adoption of this new phase of being. I was further inspired by a man that calls himself Infinite Waters, saying in one of his videos we are what we call ourselves. So what do I want to call myself? Something with vast depth and meaning.

So what does the name mean?

Tam- From Vietnamese roots, its meaning is 'heart'

Ra- Ra is the Egyptian equivalent of life-force, chi, kundalini, prana, shekinah and salaat

Wich'- which I have always attributed to candle making and it was  recently pointed out to me that wicca, is sorta in the name Wichman. Candle=light

Ma- cause I am a woman after all

So put it all together....TamRa Wich'Ma means Heart Life Force Lady of the Light.

And yes... I am in the process of officially (not the Facebook kind) changing that spelling.

So that's the story for the most part, with a few parts omitted for time efficiency and general lack of remembering.

So if you care to join me in this new phase of being, do call me TamRa

Tchin-tchin! To life. 

Now, I encourage you to go write your own story, both literally and figuratively.

COMMIT-ment Ceremony  

Me-rriage  

(30th revolution around the sun)

I commit to myself on this day

to live into my boldness each and everyday;

to cherish my abundant nature;

to relish the opportunity to be radically authentic with myself and others;

I commit to myself on this day to be TRUE to myself in every way.

.

When the road narrows and the fog comes in,

I will stay earnest to the light within.

When I am lost and swear inability to go on…

I ask all of you to sing me my heart song.

Tell me of my strength, my courage, and beauty.
Sing me sweet melodies of meadow larks, butterflies, and strawberries 🍓 .

Dance with me and twirl me about, 

reminding me that if there was a road in…
there MUST be a road out.

As I commit to myself on this day to strengthen my own heart song;
my cords of being in true spiritual alignment;
and physical action to walk me home;
I know there will come a time that I will need you dear witnesses to whisper in my ears, to blow through the trees, and drop drop melodically raindrops forming puddles in my path.

May your whispers become my internal talk;
May your wind become the song I dance to in the the storms of my existence;
And the puddles you send remind me that though I may shed tears those waters will help to grow wildflowers in the scenes of my life.

I do commit to stand in my power;
and to allow weakness to come; 

to stand in my truth;
To embrace my own divinity, though it terrifies more than most things in this
realm.

I do hear embrace my feminine form, my womanly body.
The parts of me that I have denied, hid, and cried about, the parts of me that allow me to desire to be in the shadow of the world rather than the light.

As this revolution turns and my own evolution carries forth, I embrace the mystery of my own sacred transformation and I put myself on spirit’s altar.
Connecting divinely through these waters that run through this valley as they run through my body.

May spirt find me, my vessel, an attuned instrument to fiddle, play, and strum;
to make manifest a heart song, that spirit finds worthy to be sung.

May I in my exalted being, as well as in my cowardice, be a beam of light
prevailing consciousness for my own ascension and a gateway for others

I commit to invest my efforts diligently towards the synthesizing of my heart
and my mind; knowing that
ALL GOOD THINGS DO COME IN GOOD TIME.

I do commit to me— to be true to myself especially when it is most difficult,
to follow-through with deep sincerity and honesty

To find my place in REVERENCE and RELATIONSHIP to all things upon this
planet.

I COMMIT— show me the way great spirit.