What’s in a name?

What’s in a name? Everything, or at least, whatever you can come up with in the beginning. Whether it’s naming your child, my son had the honor to tell the story of an ambition that stretches three generations; or a new startup, I can easily tell a 15 minute story about my startup names; it is important to name the new with the hopes and dreams that you see in them.

When I was tinkering with “Tiny House Of The Heart”, I was a little concerned with how ‘cute’ it sounded. I am not cute (at first glance). But the reasons to call my new bookstore “Tiny House Of The Heart” are so much more than important than this.

In the past couple of years, I had the good luck of chancing on a number of books that really touched my heart. I was exploring a new kind of lifestyle and along the way, I had to cross the ‘aloneness’ bridge. With so much time on my hands, I started reading profusely. Out of possibly more than 100 titles, I discovered this collection that is simply magical. I call them the Soul Books.

Books for the soul calm you down. They take you away from the material concerns of the world - your no-longer-fulfilling job, your strenuous relationships, your dwindling bank account and perhaps even your waning sense of security. Soul titles take you to another world, not here, yet uncannily familiar, like it’s a long lost past from a fragment of your fondest memories. They make you realize, that after all, you are so much more than your job, title, social role and wealth. That you are not a number.

As I read these books, I found myself more open to matters of the heart. My colleagues tell me I changed. Friends tell me I’m less dominating. And I begin to smile more. All this not because I’ve moved up the next social level. And I’ll explain to anybody who’d ask that it is all due to the fact that I am more grounded.

This reading blitz also coincided with a soul searching and spiritual development phase. I still wonder if the reading caused it. But that’s not important. The important thing is that as I turned inward to know my self better, so as to answer, for myself, perennial questions like “who am I” and “what am I doing here”. You see, once you start asking these questions, the answers will started showing themselves in dreams, synchronicities and teachings.

In short, I know that I have to start this bookstore. And obviously, I am calling it where I have found it - in a small corner, a tiny space of my heart.

Cheers!
Shooperman