{Her Name}

Heather Meaning: In American, the meaning of the name Heather is: A flowering evergreen plant that thrives on peaty barren lands as in Scotland.

Social media... {insert ginormous eye roll}; the place people feel entitled to know your business, your relationship status, your kids' birthdays, be informed of your dinner choices, criticize, laugh at you, know where you've been and with whom you've been doing it, satisfy their curiosity, speculate, compare themselves, think they know best, want to inject their opinion, spread rumors... 

Yeah, it's happened to all of us that partake in these sites. If it hasn't happened to you, if you haven't walked down the streets of your own hometown and people instantly comment on your most recent post on Facebook, well then, sweetheart, you ain't livin' through the web! 

That recently happened to me when I {gasp} removed my last name and changed it to my middle instead to read 'Heather Anne.' Let me just say, nothing quite makes you feel more infamous in a small town than people thinking you must be going through some mid-life crisis. I sort of began to feel like a papered quarter horse mare only coveted for her sire's name, when I thought I was just your average grade, put-out-to-pasture old brood mare. {Insert laugh}

I felt frustrated and angry. Why do people care that much about what I've been up to? When did my name become what people wanted to discuss? If I had only known it would cause such a stir, I would've died my hair, posted a nude photo and changed my name to Elizabeth Taylor. Not really. But, seriously...

That being said, it also stirred some thoughts about what really is in a name anyway? What makes me, well, me? Because, guess what? It really isn't my name.

I recently had a conversation with a very loving and amazing family member about just this. Her kindness and insight always blows me away, and at this particular juncture of my life, I so appreciated her thoughts about the subject "what's in a name."

In her words, our name gives us our lineage and DNA traits and sometimes one heck of a reputation to either uphold or break. From my father and mother comes the DNA, my hair, my skin (not sure whom to thank for that acne just yet) my eyes, my short legs (also, thank you) and my barnyard mouth (not my mother's). I didn't know my father growing up, and through a lifetime of events that are more personal in nature, I still don't yet know what I get from him, because even the last name didn't stick.

Regardless, I am made up of two people, but a whole lot more than two names.

Marriage tagged on another, giving me an identity as a wife and again as a mother, but when that came to an end, I had to find me again. Just me. Not anyone's name. Not my heritage. Not my father's. Not my mother's. Not my husband's. Mine.

So what does Heather mean? Rest assured, my name is synonymous with words like "crazy," "strong willed," "temperamental," "ornery" and "funny." But the real answer to that question is truly an ongoing journey.

And you know what? It's a pretty colorful and amazing one, sorta like that mountain flower my mama named me after. And like it, I'd like to think that I have enough resilience and grace and beauty to continue to grow through those winter storms, unwarranted adversity and healthy change. And hopefully, when that sun comes out and cares to shine a little on me, I can grace the paths of others that I cross every day.

May my name make my children proud, my parents proud and most of all, me, proud. Because in the end, I want my name to not be remembered most on social media, but by those closest to me as something good.

Whether you are man or woman, take the time to remember what's in your name...

Happy Trails~

Heather