Hummingbirds Leaving

 

Featured image: Hummingbird Late Fall 2025

Change

Have you ever noticed that change never changes?

Ha!

I can always tell when fall has come, the hummers are no longer here.  And I can always tell when the rebirth of spring is in the air – the hummers return.  The hummers have gone from my area now, and while fall has not fully arrived, there are definitely signs of fall in the air. Fall and spring are such incredible, beautiful seasons. They can symbolize change, and the progression and transformation inherent in our experiences of life, the cycles of life. 

I think change is why I like writing histories. Histories can change slowly, or they can change quickly.  Just taking one word from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: ‘luxury.’ The original definition of luxury was lechery and lust. Now the current meaning of luxury carries a far more positive connotation as it means “to grow profusely.”

And if you take the “idea” of “art” well we have all gone through the exercise of just “what is art?” question.

But this week the word change certainly has shouted change to me. I really barely knew who Charlie Kirk was, but the X generation certainly did – on both sides. Why has the news media broken down the story of his death into 2 sides – a binary – why? And once I knew more about him, I was saddened to the quick about his death and the change his death had brought to me. And the change in the word “fascist” I found very interesting – I thought to myself – why was the man believed to be a fascist? I would never have labeled him a fascist, yet another why of creating change, labeling others.

I always thought of fascists as Nazi-like, Hitler-like, yet this man was a Christian.  So I looked up the root word fascist. Keeping this simple the word fascist seems to have been used by all political groups according to Wikipedia, “Anti-fascism has been an element of movements across the political spectrum and holding many different political positions such as anarchism, communism, pacifism, republicanism, social democracy, socialism and syndicalism as well as centrist, conservative, liberal and nationalist viewpoints.”  

The point being words and their meanings change – but one word I believe carries the same meaning across every political spectrum: ‘freedom.’  I have written a lot about the word freedom.  I will put it in my next journal entry. 

For now I will end with a James Nathan Muir quote.

“FREEDOM lies just beyond the fences we build around ourselves.” 
James Nathan Muir