Day 681: 5 Minute Freewrite: Sunday - Prompt: eagle feather

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It is a strange feeling for a highly disciplined man to wake up with 18 love notes and $1,225 in loose bills on his chest, the sunset's golden hour streaming in on him, and an eagle sitting on his fourth-floor windowsill, casting his long shadow through the room.

Captain Henry Fitzhugh Lee, surprised that morning with a week off from work provided by the labor of his small division in the Big Loft police force, had gotten home that Tuesday morning and fallen out, exhausted from Reserve Weekend and fire line duty that Monday. Pattern disruption was hard on his mind … not since his wife's death, 27 years before, had he been off his routines. He had never been severely injured through his 23-year career, and had never taken more than required R&R.

Which is to say he had no idea where he was and how he had gotten there, lying in bed at 6:45pm with notes from his colleagues and their gifts of vacation money on his chest that he had brought home.

Yet, the eagle had taken his mind in a whole different direction – back home to the Blue Ridge, with his grandfather who had raised him.

There had been a summer day wandering the mountains near sunset when they had seen an eagle – a very young one – miss his target and land so hard he had lost some feathers. Seven-year-old Henry had panicked, bursting into tears for the young eagle.

Horace Fitzhugh Lee had wrapped his arms around his grandson to reassure him.

“Calm down, and just watch what happens – just watch.”

After a little while, the eagle had gathered itself, and flew off.

“Go get me those eagle feathers, Harry – go quick, and return!”

The little boy had brought his grandfather the feathers.

“Listen to me, my little eagle chick. You see these feathers? We respect them. They helped that eagle soar. They are beautiful. But you notice the eagle neither looks down or is looking back on them. Look way up yonder.”

Little Harry had looked, and there was the eagle again, soaring high.

“He's an eagle,” the grandfather had said. “He knows God will grow him some more feathers, so he's back to soaring. Remember this, my little eagle chick. You're going to hit some bumps in life and lose some things. Don't spend too much time looking down on what and why, or looking back to what is lost. God made you, and redeemed you in Christ. He'll heal you. Remember that. Keep trusting and obeying, and you will be able, in God's good time, to soar again. You'll soar again!”

38 years later, the meaning passed into the mind of the grandson like the golden light streaming through his window. He never bothered to orient himself to his surroundings. That would wait.

“ … God made you, and redeemed you in Christ. He'll heal you. Remember that. Keep trusting and obeying, and you will be able, in God's good time, to soar again … you'll soar again … soar again …”

Captain Lee went back to sleep in full, obedient trust, and slept until reveille time the next morning. The eagle flew off into the sunset, its mission from its Creator accomplished.

Photo by Sam Bark on Unsplash