Ashley Jessica Lance (her mother named her) (It was supposed to be Jessica Ashley, but her mother was so frazzled after having given birth, that she just said it that way when the nurse asked her what the child’s name was.)
September Musical Sky Casals
(On the day she was born, as she lay sleeping in the hopital bed with her mother, I stood and reflected on the days events as I stared out of the window. I had the music of Mozart in my head at the time, and the sky looked just like a symphony with swirling crazy clouds. It was September.)
River Wolfe Montana Casals
(His mother had visions of a red river rushing around her about the time he was conceived and I thought he looked just like a little wolf when he was born [almost named him Wolfgang] and I thought he was something strong like a mountain but “Mountain” seemed silly and one of the midwives said that Montana [pronounced Montanya] meant mountainous in spanish. Casals is a family name from Catalonia, Spain, so Montanya it was!)
Ananda Cosmos Solaris Casals
(The kid did a somersault onto the bed and into the midwife’s hands when he popped out of his mom and made everyone incredibly bubbly with laughter so Ananda (meaning ‘full of bliss’ in Hindu) was it. And something very deep behind his eyes and behind his mind and behind my whole universe was coming through him but it seemed to be very at home (like from our region of the cosmos) so the blissful cosmos from the center of our sun he became. [Incidentally, 'Solaris' was a completely made up name on my part. Polaris is the north star, or the star at the center of our sky. So I thought Solaris described the center of our sun! But low and behold a truck came out called the solaris like the next year!! What the heck!? And then some MOVIE!? Sheez! Turns out the ficken movie was a frickin book a long frickin time ago! Sheesh!])
Mahogany Wood Rain Leaf Casals
(Born 3 months early, tiny little thing…reminded me of a little leaf that fell off of a great big tree and it was our job to try to catch it before it hit the ground…it was terrifying. Mahogany Leaf was first, then as we went on the roller coaster of him getting better and then worse then better, etc., His strength gave him the name Wood. As I chanted to him for weeks on end, the word rain seemed to pop up unconsciously a lot, so without denying that, four weeks after he was born, his name was complete.)
“A tiny leaf falls
From a great big ancient tree–
A hand reaches out
To catch it–
Wood flows like rain…”
