I like to name objects. By that I don’t mean that I call a tree “a tree.” I mean that I actually give the object a name. Sometimes I ask the object what it would like for a name? Then I wait and see what it communicates to me.
For example, today we had a new hot water heater installed, as the old one was on its very last leg and needed to be freed from its contract to provide our home with heated water. I was with Freddy, our dog, as the technicians were installing and removing the old hot water heater. When they were done, the plumber let me know and explained about what temperature setting he had left it at etc. I went to have a look at the new hot water heater and, I must say, it is a very sexy beast! It is new and shiny and metallic and streamlined. I immediately knew that its name was Hot Stuff. So I texted my partner and let him know that Hot Stuff had arrived and was doing well.
Months ago we got a new washer and dryer, as the old ones were also on their very last legs. As I learned how to use the new machines I realized that their names had to be Herbie and Love Bug. For those of you who are way too young to get that reference, Herbie the Love Bug was a fully conscious VW Beatle in a series of movies way back in the stone age. You can Google that.
Our microwave is named Mike…for obvious reasons. The toaster is called Bread Winner. The fireplace is named Heath…which is both hearth without the “r” and heat with an “h”. And my Nissan Altima is named Alexander the Altima (a play on Alexander the Great…but more Ultimate than that).
So why do I do this, you may be wondering? Well, this is where we get into a bit of Animism and Quantum Physics and such. I will just put it into English. I feel that everything around us has energy. That energy is always shifting and changing. But that energy is also doing that shifting and changing even in what we refer to as “inanimate objects.” So I connect with this energy on a deeply spiritual level, thus creating a communion between myself and the entire world around me.
I have a mountain ash tree in my back yard whose name is Rowan (because mountain ash trees are rowan trees). I saved his life a few years ago and adopted him. And I have a pussy willow tree not far from Rowan , a transplant from a dear friend’s yard, that I have named Silver Leaf because her leaves are a beautiful silvery sage-like green. These trees I have planted are growing fast and well, and hopefully will provide some shade for us in the years to come. But in the meantime, I am just enjoying watching how much they grow each season. I talk to them, as I do with all of my plants, who, by the way, each have their own names as well. I should mention that I do not name the plants that are in vegetable form as I don’t want to eat something I have named. I learned that while growing up on a farm. Never name a cow or a sheep or a chicken etc. It becomes too heart breaking once one is being served them at the dinner table.
So the reason that I name things, as mentioned, is to establish a better relationship with them. That relationship can then grow as we go through the years. Alexander Altima communicates to me when things are needing attention. I don’t rely on dashboard lights lighting up to say “Check Engine” to tell me when something needs to be addressed. Not only do I make sure that he is well cared for in terms of oil changes and tire changes and lube jobs etc, but I also listen to him. When I start him up, I listen. That means not playing the stereo for a few moments. I listen to his purr and I listen for any ticks or rattles or clunks. At the first sign of something not sounding right, I swing by my mechanic so he can do a diagnostic. If it is nothing serious, then great. If it is, then it is addressed immediately, because I rely upon Alexander Altima to get be from point A to point B all the time.
The same goes for any appliance in our house. If it is making a strange sound, we check it out. A couple of years ago I was listening to music while doing dishes and cooking something in the oven at the same time. Suddenly I heard this strange hissing and snapping and there were flashes of strobe lights going off. I turned around and found that the oven was having an electrical fire! Had I ignored it, or been in another room for just a few more minutes there would have been an explosion that would have leveled our home. This part I found out after the fact from my best friend who had just taken a fire safety course through her workplace and had that as an example of one of the worst case scenarios for a house fire because they happen so fast and are so volatile. But fortunately I was able to cut the power to the oven soon enough to not become roasted in the process. I had already had a name for the stove before this happened. But after that I nicknamed it Sparky.
So as this relationship thing with inanimate objects develops, we find that there is a rapport that also develops along the way. For example, my office telephone…on a landline….whom I have named Digits, lets me know before it rings that I have an incoming call. I know that sounds strange. But I know as many as 10 seconds ahead of time that the phone is going to ring. And then it does. Some might say that this makes me psychic. I don’t think of it in those terms. I think of it as being aware of the energy of the force and responding to it. Before I had this thing called Call Display, I would often also know who it was. Now I don’t need to do that because Call Display does that for me.
Stones and crystals tend to communicate to me all sorts of things. It might be information of something they have witnessed in their journey on this earth or it might be about how to utilize their talents when doing healing work with people. I have one crystal that has been passed down to me through many generations of my family line. Another, whom I call Old Friend, I have had since I was about two years of age. They both speak to me…most likely because I LISTEN.
Listening does not have to be in audio form. It can also be in visual form, or in sensation form. When you think about it, there is a lot of stuff in our surroundings to which we respond without actually being conscious of that response. Have you ever had an encounter that made the hair on the back of your neck stand on end? That is our unconscious fear response to stimuli that we are either observing or even just sensing. It is real and it has a real response. When I encounter a spirit I have hair on my arms that stand up. That is not necessarily fear. But it is a response to the sudden presence of a spirit. Yes, I can see that spirit and usually hear them, but sometimes they appear behind me and the hair on my arms lets me know, so then I can turn around and communicate with them.
So these are my reasons for naming inanimate objects. Because the fact that it is inanimate does not necessarily mean that it is not ALIVE and CONSCIOUS.