NATURE CONNECTION

Seeing a Deer in the Wild Means Regeneration

Prompt: how does your name connect you to nature?

Deer in the woods. Picture: Istvan Pocsai via Pixabay

My name has been abbreviated since I was little. People call me all sorts of things and only sometimes they use my full name. Abbreviations sound connected. Close. Give us a familiarity that strengthens our bond.

People call me:

• Dé (pronounced Day, which is appropriate because with my wild soul I live in the moment and seize the day)
• Desi (pronounced as Daisy, like the little white flowers popping up in a meadow)
• Dries (an abbreviation of my last name. It’s a man’s first name in my country. My colleagues used it when I still worked as a business unit manager of a team of 60 men in Amsterdam. No one calls me that anymore nowadays. I’ve become too feminine upon finding my wild soul, I guess…)
• Ree (this is what our grandson calls me. He shouts it often. Reehee! Mostly when he wants me to watch him. Pronounced as Ray. I like it. It reminds me of the rays of sunlight that he hopefully perceives in his life when I’m around…)