Thank for sharing. Big sparks of recognition from my own journey and realizing the phases I’ve navigated ( often clunkily) on my own. I just forwarded it to my two ( out of 5) remaining sisters. I recently met a woman who utilizes ketamine in her therapy practice - she comes to my Sunday coffee clutch sometimes. May ask her more about that.

I just found this link/thread but think it’s too late to jump in. I could not find any of this before and it was only showing August calendar when I was looking for it. Must be something glitchy ( mercury?) on my end. Next time !

My name has always felt like it’s just an identifier, the single syllable that distinguished me from my four sisters - tho I was often called SuNanTiLeeBeth!! In moments of exasperation by my Mother when she’d have to run through the whole cycle to reach mine. Usually when I had somehow already exasperated her ! When I was little they often added another syllable- “y” - to my name and it always felt diminishing and a constant reminder that I was the youngest in the family, and in the neighborhood- and that also didn’t fit with how I really felt. I went by last name “Beaven” ( rhymes with “heaven” ) when in college —both times. But I always had to add that tag line on to correct pronunciations ( it’s “Heaven with B—NOT Beaver with an N !) that got tiring. I got a bit of respite when I married Mr.”Wrong” and had the name Partridge added on - it gave the name a lift - but the dead weight attached dragged it down. I took Beaven back. Years later when Mr. “Right” and I decided to run to the courthouse and make things “legal” after living together for about 13 years - I told him( jokingly of course) I was just doing it to get his name - no one ever mispronounces Jasper. But that last part is true. I never have to correct that. I shortened the Beaven to B in my name but I realized recently that much of my art “history” shows up with the Beaven name in publications, awards, etc and I wonder if I should drag out the “eaven” letters again on my art related things so that potential collectors can find the full story if they every try to google. Or I guess I can just make my CV more accessible. As far as that short little “Beth “ name it is just a tag. I get called other one-syllable names by people who forget which one is mine…Ann and Pam are two I’ve heard a lot. I don’t take offense. I’m bad at remembering names so I hold a lot of grace around that. When I re-introduce myself to someone I often have to add “ as in Beth&Wolfgang” - people always remember Wolfgang’s name. That helps. When I did get married to him and went to get my name changed I asked them if I could just change the whole thing then - how about Isabella B Jasper ? I asked. The ladies at the social security office just laughed at me and said nope ! I’d have to go through a judge and pay some big money to do that. In those days money only went to things necessary to run our business and keep the roof over our heads. I decided if I ever needed a nom de plume that would be it. Isabel was my Mother’s middle name so I was at least keeping it in the family.

@Lee Sowder I just finished listening to it on my work commutes…was thinking I need to get a print copy.

@Lauren Francis thank you Lauren - I’ve not shared my non- business writing outside of Life in10 and the subsequent writing spaces with Valley - other than high school and college English class assignments (which were always well received. ) I will make that leap to start sharing more.

@Lauren McDonald I’m glad we both have a safe pond/lake/river/sea/ocean to start wading and swimming and ,sometimes, maybe just float ! 🌊🏊‍♀️😊