Invitation to A Reading from the Journal of Yesterday

I launched a Substack in March called A Reading from the Journal of Yesterday where I am happily posting reflections somewhat regularly from my lifetime collection of journals and personal writing. I am cross-posting my most recent entry here because I would love for readers of this blog to join me there.

As a thank you to long-time followers (and believers in) my work, at the end of this post, I include an excerpt from a chapter of my memoir-in-progress that you can read without becoming a paid Substack subscriber.

What’s in a name?

I changed my name to Shelly on my Facebook profile two months ago in celebration of my 35th high school reunion. It’s the name I grew up with.

I didn’t realize it would be 60 days, according to META rules, before I could change it back to Raye, the name I’ve used for over 30 years.

I’ve told the story of how I went from Shelly to Raye many times since the first of June. No, I am not now and never was in a witness protection program. I was not trying to reinvent myself in my early 20s, though I appreciated the fresh start of going to college like anyone else.

I am not trying to be someone I’m not. I simply become more and more who I am.

Some people say, “You’ll always be ‘Shelly’ to me.” It’s spoken like a secret, as if the person knows something about me that others may not simply because they “knew me when.”

When was that exactly? Who was that me?

Only a very special few have known me through all my names, speaking to me in every language of myself.

In celebration of switching back to Raye on Facebook today, here’s an excerpt from a chapter of my memoir-in-progress that explains what’s in my name.

Click to download chapter excerpt.

I will continue to update this website from time to time, so I hope you will stick around. Please also join me on Substack where I share generously from my work, even for free subscribers. If you want to become a paid subscriber, it’s just $5 a month or $55 a year, and includes content just for you, commenting options, prompts to support your own personal writing excavation, and discounts on workshops.

Thank you for following me wherever you find my work!