I have been given multiple names (LuAnne, Annie, Dr. Holder, Mom, Honey) but I get to decide on my own user names. Of course those names must be unique, but I try to devise unusual names that capture my current state of mind as well. Sometimes I use the user name chakrapoet because chakras and poetry are two areas that fascinate me. I learned about chakras from my one and only psychic reading two years ago and became fascinated with this ancient perspective on life. I seem to naturally be balanced in the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th chakras, with the 5th one being the strongest. I am a bit of an air head (I’ve been told I walk six inches off the ground) so the first chakra is a constant challenge. For some reason the 3rd chakra also gives me the most trouble in spite of being rather stubborn. Poetry has been a love of mine since childhood. Years ago I taught middle school English and my favorite unit was the poetry unit. A mentor once told me, “Teach what you love then at least one person in the class will be happy.” So I taught poetry with great enthusiasm and learned to love Longfellow and Kipling and even Edward Lear.
Another user name I’ve used is weiwuwei. It comes from another interest of mine, Taoism. Wu wei refers to the Taoist concept of not doing. I added the extra “wei” to express the idea of “doing without doing”. For example, being happy because you aren’t looking for happiness or finding love when you aren’t pursuing a lover. I do enjoy doing; I love to dance and hike and write and zentangle, for example. So much of life, though, seems to unfold naturally and I try to embrace that movement and go with the flow when possible.
Finally, I have also used intentionalinterplay as my user name. (Intentional Interplay is the title of another blog I write on the topic of the writing process.) I am an instructional designer by trade, helping professors put their courses online. I love to design courses that intentionally engage students in personal exploration of the content, intentionally encourage interaction among students, and intentionally expect collaborative problem solving without the safety net of a “right” answer. It is a wei wu wei approach to instruction, I suppose.
If I need a new user name, I think I will use indrasnet. Indra’s Net is a story about connections and how the actions of each individual has far reaching influence. As you can see from my multiple user names, I use the web to nurture my connections with others. I look forward to sharing with you as we write together and add to the collective creation.
Wind Rush 