Art isn’t about art, but about life and its struggle to make meaning out of everything. Art gives the artist a way to speak about their sense of reality and its ups and downs.
Featured image: Leaves at the Base of an Oak Tree
Every once in a
while your gaze
just stops—stops in
its tracks. Something
wonderful has caught
your eye.
Just stops
your gaze in its tracks.
Just stops your gaze
in its tracks.
Today my eyes caught the
sunlight glowing on top of the
red oak leaves
in the woods.
They have turned… early.
The red, a beautiful
golden red,
stopped and
bathed in
God’s glory.
Featured image: Oak Leaves II
There is a small oak tree
beneath a
canopy of pine branches,
whose leaves have all
turned yellow.
There is a small red
birdhouse
hanging, abandoned for
the season.
Quietly, seasons pass.
Time has come and
gone, never
to return.
Featured image: Kazan River
Change in our lives requires movement. This movement is like a river, a flow.
A river is grace. And this grace becomes destiny.
This destiny, filled with our Creator, is where our freedom truly lies.
This river surrounds us with caresses of freedom.
Surrender to them—for a beautiful intimacy and the yes, yes, yes to the flow of freedom in our lives.
Featured image: Different Journeys
Today as I sit quietly in the garden a gentle breeze brushes through the trees rusting softly the leaves. The same gentle breeze is caressing my face softly. Freedom for me is like this breeze, is like the wind. If I can think of anything that is free – the wind comes to mind immediately. But is freedom ever as free as the wind? No. But we can get close to it through the choices we make when we create and how we choose to live.
America is about freedom. America is about independence. America is about individualism. America is about not allowing others to do for you what you can do for yourself.
So how ever did the notion of freedom become linked with not figuring things out by yourself? The notion of being an artist is all about the freedom of coming up with your own idea and your own concept. Then, creating it with the same freedom you were able to use to come up with the idea.
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
