In a few days, I will travel to Paris, France! As the day of departure gets closer, French expressions are beginning to come to mind. One in particular is the expression for “My name is.” An actual translation is ” I call myself,”  Je m’appelle is the answer to Comment appellez-vous? What do you call yourself? The first time I heard that interchange in my first French class, I was fascinated with the accuracy of the expression. because of being named by someone else, I call myself Eleanor.  My parents, siblings call me Eleanor or Ellie. A now deceased friend called me Ndidi,which means patience, so I readily adopted that name as a pen name. After all, who wouldn’t want to be known as patience? My father called me Jack as a knickname. It was short for Jackrabbit, I suppose because of my high energy. We are all given names and titles to go with those names. But, what do we call ourselves, really? Who are we? What is a name that fits us?  Shakespeare wrote, ” A rose is a rose. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” What is our essential name..the essence of our sweetness?  Who do you call yourself?

Readers of African Zen have asked me why I wrote the book. At first, my answer was not clear. I spoke of my desire to uplift others and to help them to see that there is joy in the world. I still want those things for all people, but I realize that I have no control over the upliftment or hopefulness of others. I can however attempt to change myself. I read a poignant quote from Rumi this morning. “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” I now realize that the book, African Zen, was a way for me to change my own thinking and to know myself more intimately.

Many have questioned my use of Zen in the title of my book, African Zen. The practice of Zen is being present here and now, being with our experience in the present moment, and heightening our awareness of what we are experiencing without having a need to interact or control events. In Zen practice, a person can just be. A joyful life is one with continual awareness of the self in the present moment. If we are still we know Spirit. We are spirits having a human experience. Zen is a way to acknowledge and experience who we really are  and to know that all things except our inner spirit, come and go.

In a just published book entitled African Zen I introduced the first of nine principes for a joyful life: Trust in your relationship with Spirit.  In the present moment, Spirit can be experienced within. Breathe deeply and feel the presence within. Be still and know Loving Spirit. You will no longer question who you are or what your purpose is in life. You are powerful energy in this infinite universe.