A voice from the mountain forest that I recognised as the Forest Mother spoke. And a male voice that was familiar but whom I had not specifically met also spoke. Maybe he was the Desert Father. Each spoke in their own language without words. Although I didn't know their languages, I caught the conveyed emotions and thoughts. Both spoke and agreed on the same thing.
They named me.
It was a name born of love and blessing. A name that brought peace. My heart recognised the name and welcomed it. It made me feel whole.
I interpreted it first into my native tribal language and contemplated the meaning. I dwelled in the feeling and tasted the colours and sound of it. The smell and touch of it.
Then I sensed the presence of two other people in my dream. They stood watching and listening, having been obscured by the greater presences of the Forest Mother and Desert Father. When had they arrived and what were they doing here?
The Forest Mother and Desert Father impressed that they were good people, who had called upon the Forest Mother for help. The Forest Mother hinted that I originally belonged to the Desert Father and had called on him to take care of his own child. Both indicated that these two people were my elders. My family. They cared for and were concerned about me.
Turning around, I looked at the two somewhat familiar strangers. It took a while for me to recognise them because of the messy shifting pieces in my mind and the vague returning memories creeping back into place. Then it took me a little longer to find the path that led from thought to comprehensible speech, enabling me to speak out loud. Or in this case, mentally speak out loud. I didn't get there fast enough though.
The men exchanged a quick and private barrage of conversational thought with each other. I could see that one man was being carried and supported by the other in this mental landscape as he didn't have the mental ability or mental power to remain in my dream. However, he possessed a similar type of presence and ability to the Forest Mother and Desert Father, enabling him to see and participate more so on the same level as the giants than the other man or myself. They just functioned through a different channel or wavelength.
And then, they named me in the common tongue.
"Harmony," both men named me with the same surety that the Forest Mother and Desert Father spoken in. An echo, so to speak. One that resounded just as strongly and helped me to place the name and identity where it rightly belonged.
The name shook my entire being as I recognised and accepted it. It bound me together back into a whole person. It felt like an inner earthquake. A constructive earthquake.
The identity core merged with the name and the remaining sand flew in a circling whirlwind that then settled back down around the new name and identity. Everything flew back into place. As if this was what it had meant to have been like from the beginning and my former identity had been but a shadow of this. My new name, like a magnet, pulled me together.
The fractures and fissures between pieces and shards bonded and began healing. It made me take in a long, slow, deep breath.
Harmony.
That was me. This was my new name.
I tested and tasted this translation and found it acceptable. Strong. Resonant. This name resonated with me and my new sense of identity and belonging to the Land.
I liked it.
I had a name.
I had a name!
I saw myself and accepted myself and so knew myself.
Hello, me. My name is Harmony.
I giggled with childish glee, showing my new name and identity off to everyone who had gathered into my mind to watch and help me. I danced in happy circles like a child among flowers.
Look! Look! Look at me!
I have a name. A place of belonging. An identity.
Look at me!
A giddy sense of euphoria and gratefulness welled up from deep within. It made me want to bounce and dance and sing. Oh and cry. I felt the emotions so strongly and so much that tears were pouring down my cheeks even as I laughed and sang. I didn't know how to express my thanks or feelings to them, and so flung myself at the gentle giants from the desert and forest showering them with hugs and kisses.
They returned the love with a gentle steadying emotion, making sure I didn't over exert myself in my extreme excitement. They acknowledged. They recognised and shared my joy with a delight deeper than any emotion I had ever seen before. It was a bit like swimming in a pool of water that came from two deep underground sources, feeling the two currents collide and swirl around you as they met and blended. It was awe inspiring and very sobering.
I felt the two giants communicating with each other over my head. The colours and complexities of their speech and emotions made me vertiginous when I stared at the colourful exchange. In that moment, I also gained a deeper understanding of their language and so found the path to peek into this new wavelength of communication. It was like discovering the passcode to a new wavelength channel, but not having yet learnt the coded language you hear inside.
The more I listened, the more I was learning to understand their speech.
Both giants drew closer to each other and I was wrapped in both their embraces at the conclusion of their conversation. I heard them agree to meet and make a nest with kits of their own. Wonderful, beautiful ones like me.
Aww. That made me blush.
The Desert Father tossed me in the air, making me shriek with delight. With a kiss, he put me down and told me to come out and meet him in person. As the child who brought the two neighbouring giants together and caused them to realise their compatibility, he wanted me to bring him over to the Forest Mother's territory. I felt his worry as to whether the closest route through the city and across our human made bridge would be suitable.
Bewildered by this question, I suggested he ask the two men. My elders.
Belatedly, their names came to me together with my impression of them.
Homeward Bound and Kimi Shigure.
The Desert Father seemed to nod in understanding and greeted the men by their names, causing both to be taken slightly aback. One had become the nostalgic homely scent of bone broth while wrapped in the warmth of a cave with a fire. The other a sweet bean and egg yolk pastry. Upon realising how I had named them to the giant, both fell about laughing, while the rest of us looked on in confusion. Or at least I did. The Forest Mother was amused, exuding the sense of someone who knows more, that I had made a mistake in my speech but she wasn't going to correct me because what I had done was innocent and sweet.
Those - those weren't their names? Wasn't this the interpretation of their names in the giant's language?
They all just sent me waves of love and reassurance, leaving me looking at them all in bewilderment.
They all seemed to communicate faster than I could keep up with. Their conversation was filled with intricate complexities that I couldn't comprehend. I truly felt like I was just a child listening to the adults talk over my head with words I hadn't learnt yet. Feeling my slightly disgruntled emotions because I couldn't understand what they were talking about, all of them reassured me in their own ways.
The Desert Father bounced me. The Forest Mother kissed my cheek every now and then. Homeward patted my shoulder and Shigure stroked my head.
Was I a baby now?
Even so, I couldn't deny that I was enjoying all this attention and this feeling of security. This type of pampering might not happen again for the rest of my life, so I had to make the most of it and enjoy it while I still had the chance...
But you know, adults can really talk. For a long time. Non-stop.
I fell asleep while they continued to talk and felt myself being laid down.
"Sleep well," said Shigure's voice in my ear and I felt myself being tucked in.
There was a kiss on my head and then the conversation was taken elsewhere, leaving me to sleep in peace.