What's in a name?

So this blog went live yesterday and to no surprise, I found people asking about the name. Understandable, considering the boat we just said good-bye to is named Shiva! On a side note, if I could, Joe and Levi left early this morning with Shiva in tow.
As I type this, they are on the ferry to Haines, hopefully asleep after the ridiculously early morning start. Prayers and thoughts of safety would be greatly appreciated by the worried wife and mama left behind!

Anyway, back to the name. When Joe and I first started talking about this crazy adventure we had in mind for our family, we knew we wanted to pick the name for our boat. This would be our home, it would be what we would be known by for other cruisers, so we wanted a good one--one that sounded right and meant something to us. One night, we were tossing out names when one of us--I can't remember now--said, "Kyrie Eleison, like the song." After saying it a couple of times we thought we liked the sound of it. Then we did some research. First off, we found the lyrics to the Mr. Mister song.

The chorus says, "Kyrie eleison, down the road that I must travel. Kyrie eleison, through the darkness of the night. Kyrie eleison, where I'm going, will you follow? Kyrie eleison, on a highway in the light."

For those of you who don't know, "Kyrie, eleison" means "Lord, have mercy," in Greek and is used in many prayers and other liturgy in the Catholic and Orthodox churches. For example, "Kýrie, eléison; Christé, eléison; Kýrie, eléison," which is a prayer that asks "Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy."

Now, I don't know about anyone else, but giving a boat a name that means, "Lord, have mercy," sounds pretty good to me! But the clincher was the second stanza. Here are the words:  

When I was young, I thought of growing old

Of what my life would mean to me

Would I have followed down my chosen road

Or only wished what I could be

Right there, we knew we had found the name for our future boat. Not only did we have a name that meant something to us, but it also had a theme song that doubled as a manifesto. It's been a reminder as we've traveled through life to get to this point; every time I especially second-guessed if I really wanted to cut ties ashore and sail off with my family, the second half of that stanza--"would I have followed down my chosen road, or only wished what I could be?" was there to remind me to follow our dream and hold fast to our plans.

Lord, have mercy on us as we prepare to follow down our chosen road! And help us to find the right boat to bear this name we have selected!

(Originally posted on the old blog on September 26, 2015)