My mother started calling me "Olive" one morning.

I'm not sure why.

There must have been something in my demeanor that morning, in the way I sat with my hair pulled back, sipping my tea and staring out the window, that prompted my mother to exclaim, "You look an Olive."

Something about the name felt instantly right.

My mother continued using the nickname for me. I adopted Olive as my alias.

Sometimes I give the name at restaurants while waiting for a table or at a boutique when a sales person asks my name on the way to a dressing room or on those days when I simply don't feel quite like Amanda.

Thus the name of this site, Oh Olive.

Oh for its expression of joy, wonder, discovery and surprise.

Olive because this name has come to represent the parts of myself that I hope to cultivate.

Olive is tender.

She is centered.

She does not need to yell or lose her temper in order to stand up for herself.

She is playful and light-hearted.

And while Amanda worries about her career, about flattening her stomach, about whether or not her life is proceeding properly and according to plan, Olive trusts in the divine order of things and knows that every moment is cause for celebration.