I have a friend, Charlie, who had been struggling to start work on a graphic novel he had rattling around in his head. He just couldn’t put pen to paper. In an effort to move forward, he decided to housesit over the winter in Homer, Alaska. Charlie figured that the solitude of an Alaskan winter would spur on the creative flow. He had a few close friends in town, from an earlier chapter in his life, when he worked as a commercial fisherman. He got into town a few days early, to visit with these friends. He was staying at Mike’s house. It was a one-room cabin within walking distance to town. Mike told him that he could sleep in the bed, since he was going over to his girlfriend’s house for the night. Mike got on his motorcycle and rode away. At around three in the morning, Mike unexpectedly returned to the cabin and woke up Charlie from his slumber. Charlie rubbed his eyes to get the sleep out of them. Mike sat down at the edge of the bed. He told Charlie that “life was easy.” Charlie said “sure, man” and rolled over on his side, figuring that they could better have this conversation in the morning. But when Charlie woke up at dawn, Mike was nowhere to be found. He put on some long underwear, pulled on his flannel shirt and headed into town for some coffee. At the coffee shop, he saw another one of his friends, Amanda, who was surprised to see him. She didn’t know that he was coming into town. And had he heard the terrible news? Mike had been killed in a motorcycle accident just last night. Charlie left the coffee shop in a stupor. He wondered about seeing him late last night. Mike’s appearance did have an otherworldly quality to it, and his message sent chills down Charlie’s spine as he remembered it. Charlie went down to the water’s edge to spend some time alone. As he was looking for a place to sit, he spied a stretch of the sandbar. It had an eagle feather resting in the pebbles, seemingly just waiting for him to arrive. Even in Alaska, an eagle feather is hard to find. It was a treasure. And Charlie took it as a talisman. “Life is easy,” he reminded himself. He was now ready to start drawing.

Photo by JanFillem on Unsplash