Since this first post shall form the basis for the rest of this blog, I thought I would begin by returning to my own beginnings, that I can remember, and also walk through the beginnings of this blog, that I can remember.

My name is Shohn. Pleased to meet you, dear reader. If this is the first time you have seen that name spelled that way, your mind is probably wrestling with it by now. You may be thinking: “How is that pronounced?”, or “Is he of Eastern European decent?”, or “Is that Shown?”, or  “That is unique, but I’m hesistant to ask him because I don’t want to give him a complex”, or “that looks like John spelled with Sh on the front”, or even “is that Irish?”.

It is my personal belief that by virtue of having my name spelled in a unique manner it has provided what I would call, a “shock”, throughout much of my life as I am introduced to new people. Almost 95% of the time, people can not spell my name correctly the first time. This has given me a bit of a complex, and some fun, in that, I have learned to observe people as they wrestle with the correct spelling of my name. I watch as their eyebrows move upwards and tighten up, the unavoidable confusion being manifested in the movement of their contorted facial expressions. Shock. It is all together rather humourous most the time. Thank goodness, I wasn’t named Michael Bolton.

What is in a name?  Did the name define who I am, or did I pick that name? Perhaps it was a little of both? If you are still with me dear reader, perhaps you’d like to know that this name business involves you as well. Does that arouse your interest? Your name has in many ways defined how people have reacted to you over the years. As our psychologists tell us, your name has contributed towards the formation of that initial 1 second impression that people of you. Did your mind automatically correct the missing word in the previous sentence that should read instead: “that people have of you”? That initial 1 second impression that the “they” say results in how they view you for the remainder of your time together. What was your initial 1 second impression? Do you remember?

Impressions.

Do you think I am a black woman based upon the way I write?

As an aside, it is interesting how synchronicity works. I was trying to make a point about impressions and so I googled for a picture of a “black woman” and found the above. As I was reviewing this article, my daughter comes up to me and informs me that she recognizes the woman above as, Samantha  Truth.  I click back over to my original source of the above picture. Her name is actually Sojourner Truth, which name and face was previously unknown to me.  What an interesting name. Apparently, something beyond me wanted that picture to be here perhaps. Soul Journey Truth?

My impression of the above woman was at first just some elderly black woman from an era long since forgotten. Do we remember her contributions even unto today?

Speaking of remembering, today is Yom Kippur for me and appropriate day for this discussion. I affectionately refer to it as Yom Skipper. On this day of letting go of the old, perhaps we should go on a little journey to find some things that we have forgotten and perhaps never knew.

I once sought some answers in the attic of my childhood home. I wanted to understand, of all things, Is Santa Claus real? Some friends at my school and I were debating this topic and I had set out to find evidence – to find the truth of this matter. I planned to investigate the toy boxes I had seen in our attic. Instead, I found a notebook with scribbles of various permutations of my name on it.

Shohn

Shaun

Shon

Sean

Shazon – Lord of the Northern Mountains

Nichelle

Shohinqua

Most curious. It was my mother’s handwriting. What a find. It must have been where my mother was wrestling with what to call me. Thank goodness she decided against Shazon. According to these scribbles, had I been born a girl, my name would have been Nichelle, which is probably nearly as unusual as Shohn. My mother’s scribbles more than 30 years ago are now affecting you today?

Do you have an interesting name? Is it unique? Is it normal? Have you ever thought of changing it?

Let’s go ahead and shock some of our readers a bit more, but I will dampen this shock by letting you know I am about to shock you. Perhaps as a consequence of this name, Shohn, which is a consequence of previous existences that my soul has lived as (note that I did not say that I lived as though that may be confusing at this time), has brought me to the point where I am at now. Soul what? Have your eyebrows closed in on each other in an expression of confusion? Has your heart rate increased? Is this old news for you and you don’t even bat an eye? What was your reaction to that phrase “previous existences”,  and why?

Who am I? Really, Who am I?  Who are you? That’s a question my mother has wanted to know of me recently as well.

I found myself discussing some things of a spiritual nature with mom.  Words like soul and journey and even the phrasology, previous existences, came up. Mom was not sure of what to make of these things and had manifested facial expressions resembling confusion and a slight amount of concern. Being a protective mother, I guess she also wanted to make sure I wasn’t going down the wrong path. She was doing me a favor in her mind, and I a favor for her in my mind. Aren’t we nice to each other?  One of those strange concepts for her was the “Journey of the Soul” evolving through multiple lifetimes.  She says to me: “You have become a completely different person in the last 2 years” – “Who are you?”

What a perfect question, and one to which we should all be seeking to know the answer, whether we realize this or not. I take her back to a special day in our journey together, and by proxy in our journey together (you the reader and I).

“Mom, do you recall when I was about 3 and asked you, why are we here?”.

Perspective.

Just as I have attempted to do with you by isolating the word perspective, suddenly, by asking my mother that question, another part of her comes to the surface. The part of her that wants to go on the attack against me, has gone into submission.  This now emerged part of her last lived in a time frame when I was a boy. It doesn’t seem to come out very often.  A softness comes into her tone. I retell the story in my mind and now in your mind.

If you can imagine…..here we were, “Mamma” and me, sitting on the backside of a 1930s era wood frame house with concrete steps that were slightly off balance due to the house being more than 50 years old and the resulting settling of earth into a rigid pattern. The house itself sat on the stumps of trees that had been brought down from their former glory.

My mother and I are sitting next to each other looking out upon the back pasture. I am observing the clouds and the many colors. I’m barely able to know my own age. I do know that I am 3 years of age, but the concept of a year has not yet solidified for me. I look over at my mother and I ask her:

“Mamma, why are we here?”.

As this flash of a memory moves through my mind, my mother begins to vocalize a similar story. When she gets to the part about “Mamma, why are we here?”, she says she remembers being shocked and raised an eyebrow or three. It seems this has helped her connect a dot just now. I observe her facial expressions and see her make a connection. I used this story to take her back to a time before I had been programmed with various things as a function of my birth family and I relate this concept to her by proxy she is able to go back to a similar time in her own life. Perhaps I have done the same for you now, dear reader. I tell her, that before I was taught, this was probably in part, the answer to her question of: “Who are you?”.

My mother has often claimed to have some abilities otherwise touted as paranormal. She claims that she knew that I was going to be a boy and it seems that my name came from inspiration to her. Where oh where did that inspiration come from I ask my mother as we discuss how much I have changed over the last few years. I ask her: “Do you think it is possible that I was in Spirit, and perhaps whispered that name into your ear?”. In a sense of irony, I have now whispered such a notion into her mind and back off to give her time to think about it. Her immediate response is shock, and probably the same for you if you are new to such things.

She asks, where is this notion in the Bible, and I tell her of several places, and all over the place if your eyes begin to open. Like me, she was raised Catholic and, in my experience, most Catholics have never read their Bibles. Such things are therefore new to her. Like myself reaching for the unknown of whether Santa Claus is real or not, instead I found something else, and in the process of attempting to know God, I found something else. New things, that is, things that have been previously unencountered, perhaps like the name Shohn, for you?

So here we are with new things. A new blog and coming up on the ending of the New Year celebration. Today is called Yom Kippur which calls for some soul searching. I have found that I can do such searching by writing or praying so this morning I found myself wondering what to write. I had placed a goal for my new year to attempt to tap into that source of inspiration and connect with it. Yet, like my mother wrestling with names, I was having trouble selecting the write topic. At last…. it comes to me.

What better article to write than an article on introducing myself, the blog, and somehow tieing together the names of the blog and myself?

I will need a name for the blog, but nothing has yet come to me. I should seek then.

As I looked for inspiration, suddenly it came: “TheWay Side”. I was trying to find something that meant “a bit off the beaten path” so to speak. As I read the meaning of wayside, I discovered that it seemed to have with it the idea of being on the edge, but is usually used in a negative connotation. Therefore, for a brief moment – this blog was entitled “TheWay Side” due to its cool sounding name being appropriately thematic, yet not so common as to be boring. As I selected this name, more inspiration came – I realized that the negative connotation could be a problem for some, and thus it had to go. And so, in a matter of about 10 seconds, this blog was once “TheWay Side” and then became “The Water’s Edge (formerly TheWay Side). This name will likely set the tone from here on out. Like water, I think the name is reflective of certain things that once were, yet still are – just in as much as I am partly that boy sitting there asking mom for the secrets of existence, and yet I am also partly a product of things that have happened since that time and so are you.

So, here we have, “The Water’s Edge (formerly TheWay Side), written by Shohn.

This blog is, my baby, and I hope I picked a good name for it, and as a consequence many other things. I wonder if my mother or my other babies will ever read it. I wonder if 1000 years from now some cyber-archaelogist will be digging through old hard drives from the turn of this century and find the contents of this blog. Perhaps it will be missing some 1s and 0s here and there and only part of the name and article will come through and he will horribly miss the points and start some new religion? Has this ever happened before? Do you think it happened to you just now upon reading this article? Time will tell.