The last time that Judy and I had to choose a name for a baby was in July, 1981. We had generous supply names for girls — names that we had kept in reserve since 1973 when our first son was born. Over the next few years, Christopher was followed by Anthony, Stephen, and Aaron. So, when our fifth son was born, he remained nameless for the first few days of his life. Each day the nurse would ask Judy, “Have you chosen a name yet?” Finally the nurse said, “You know, we can’t let you leave the hospital until that baby has a name.” The next day, Judy entered a name on the dotted line, and Jonathan David came home to the delight of the rest of “us boys”.
Judy and I have been empty nesters now for about fifteen years. So when we began to set up our beekeeping operation, choosing a name for our farm (our new “baby”) was every bit as challenging as finding the right names for our children. We considered several, including, BayBee Farm, Mountainside Honey Farm, and ValleyView Honey Farm. Each name seemed to lose its appeal with the passing of time. One of the reasons we settled on “Hum-Along Honey Farm” was that the name felt “right” the longer we thought about it.
Thinking back, we can’t imagine our kids having any different names. Is it because we chose the right names, or is it that their individual personalities gave substance and meaning to the names?
In my next post, I’ll share some of the reasons that I think “Hum-Along Honey Farm” seems to reflect us, and motivate us, as we continue to grow our little farm