{"id":4674,"date":"2025-05-17T14:30:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T18:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=4674"},"modified":"2025-05-17T14:42:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T18:42:21","slug":"whats-in-a-name-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=4674","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s in a name?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>The story spark was Girl Power. I chose the writing prompt &#8220;Her parents named her Harmony .&#8221; We had 20 minutes to write.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><b>What\u2019s in a Name?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their life was in turmoil. Lack of income made living hard. Add to that, she was pregnant and soon would give birth to another mouth to feed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The world itself was also in turmoil. Despots ruled, wars continued, there was no right or wrong. Chaos was the order of the day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then came the birth. A child, new to this bedraggled earth. And she was beautiful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They asked, &#8220;What should we name her?&#8221;\u00a0 There were plenty of ancestors\u2019 names that could be used. There were also plenty of popular names thought of.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But they decided that this child needed to be named something that expressed the needs of their culture, a goal to strive for, a name that could bring this crazy world to its senses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hope was the first name they thought of, but it was discarded. Hope means a wish for an unknown future. We need something that represents a future that will exist, not one to wish for.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Destiny was another name considered. Again, it was rejected. Destiny means a foregone conclusion, but it doesn\u2019t mean that it will be a good one.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What we need is a name that represents a world that works together as one and is a better place to be.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both called out the word \u2018Harmony\u2019 at the same time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A smile appeared on both their faces as the child before them gurgled in harmony with their pronouncement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe name you Harmony,\u201d they said. \u201cLet you be the guiding light in our future. Let you be the bringer of peace and contentment. We will be by your side forever. Let our love carry you through life\u2019s adventures.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fast-forward 40 years. Harmony was a true beacon in the world. She was a powerful teacher. Through her powerful writing and sharing, others listened, and there was change. Her parents&#8217; prophecy became a reality. The world became one of compassion, responsibility, empathy, cooperation, thoughtfulness, and love.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And both parents lived long enough to see it happen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The story spark was Girl Power. I chose the writing prompt &#8220;Her parents named her Harmony .&#8221; We had 20 minutes to write.\u00a0 What\u2019s in a Name? Their life was in turmoil. Lack of income made living hard. Add to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=4674\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[489,177],"class_list":["post-4674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-original-stories","category-story-writing","tag-girl-power","tag-writing-prompt"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4674"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4680,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4674\/revisions\/4680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}