Names Change!

It’s 8:30 at night, I walk to my mailbox on the most pleasant of evenings in Grapevine TX after a pleasing day at work.

It’s a quiet night with the exception of blaring 747 jets landing routinely at DFW airport, while other loud oversized metal birds ascend ambitiously towards the heavens.

In this still night, a neighbor gracefully walks her beautiful dog and asks me where do I get my stories from. My reply, it’s my life. I just document it.

Some days are fantastic, others not as good and my promise to myself is to obey the command found in the wisest book of all time-Proverbs.
“This is the day the Lord hath made let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

I call my son and my ex-wife answers the phone. I address her as Mrs.Schwartz one last time for this weekend she will be making a life-long vow to someone else. Bless their hearts with marital bliss.

If she were to respond to my virtuous greeting with a song, it would be “The sound of silence.” I smile as I acknowledge Mrs.Schwartz is on the phone about to resign from my name and I had the privilege to call her that.

Do you remember as kids, hearing some goofy kid say “That’s my name, don’t wear it out?”

That annoying saying suddenly strikes me, a name can be worn out. Names can vanish into a nameless vapor and dissipate to the point of no return. Names can be returned and even be traded in for a new one.

For twenty plus years I proudly walked with a woman that shared my same name. It was a pleasure and an honor from the days of my late teens to my mid 40’s to be with a fine lady.

This is a great day, I rejoice. The joy of calling someone by your last name is a precious gift given by the Lord Himself.

She was an awesome gift and sometimes we forget about the gifts we receive and they are gone just like a puff of wind or as long it takes for the judge to unemotionally stamp her “Gold Seal” of approval on the dissolution of two different names stuck together.

Gloriously I united in love with my best friend, later to be severed by
a woman in a black robe with the power vested in her by the judicial system of the great state of New Jersey. Yes, names change.

On my journey I learn the only thing constant on Earth is “change” and names can change with the help of a local courthouse, where a marriage gets laid to rest.

People change. Names change. Faces change. Lovers change. Your home changes.

There is only one thing that never changes and that is God’s love for you. I promise you He can pick you up out of a pit when you fall into one.

Rejoice in this day! I write this memoir without shedding a single tear. How is that possible?

It is possible because when mankind rejects you, there is a God above all names that will pick you up if you turn to Him. My faith positions me to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ first and human beings second.

My ex-spouse used to be my sounding wall and confidant. As I journey, I learn first-hand true companionship is found in having Him as my confidant and He never fails me.

Thankfully God changed me. I no longer need to confide in the opposite sex for approval and you do not either. Everything we need God rains down on us, even in the dry state of Texas.

And if your matrimonial name changes from a decision of a fleeing spouse, know that you are loved by someone that will always hold your hand regardless what your name is.

It’s like Bon Jovi said’ “It’s all the same, only the names have changed.”

Besides, a rose by any other name is just as sweet.