Notes from Alex

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  • What Keeps Me Going

    On grace, hidden battles, and the quiet strength we borrow from each other As I sit here reflecting on my life, I’m amazed at something I keep rediscovering: nearly everyone you meet is carrying something in their heart. Sometimes it’s heavy. Sometimes it’s dark, ugly, and painful. And often, you’d never know it just by…

  • Living Between Two Worlds

    Honoring tradition while walking forward There is a quiet tension that many of us feel but don’t always talk about. We are living between two worlds. One world is built from tradition — from the voices of our elders, from the stories passed down around kitchen tables, from the knowledge that came long before we…

  • The Sound of Wind and Spirit

    The Big Storm There’s a big storm rolling through Metlakatla right now. Heavy rain. Hard wind. The kind of storm they’re calling an atmospheric river. It’s not gentle — it’s loud, restless, alive. I drove up the mountain earlier just to watch it. From up there you can see the wind slam into the water.…

  • “The Day I Flew Backwards”

    Flying Backwards: A Lesson I’ll Never Forget There are moments in aviation that burn themselves into your memory so deeply that you can replay them frame by frame for the rest of your life. One of those moments happened during my flight training in a little Cessna 150 — a tiny two-seater that taught me…

  • What Is Love?

    A simple question that carries a lifetime of answers Notes from Alex I’m sitting here today, just letting my thoughts wander, and one question keeps circling back around in my mind: What is love? It’s a question people have been asking for centuries. Songs try to explain it. Poets write about it. Movies chase it.…

  • Pondering History

    Remembering lessons, legacy, and time spent on the water with Dad Today I found myself pondering history—our history—with Pops, Alex Atkinson Sr. He taught me, and so many in our family, how to salmon fish and how to hunt. He was full of knowledge and know-how when it came to those things, and he was…

  • A Season That Felt Heavy

    A freewrite on heaviness, holidays, and the quiet search for light There are some days when I just don’t feel inspired to write.Or create.Or even slow my thoughts down enough to make sense of them. Some days, my mind feels like it’s moving in five directions at once, and trying to gather those thoughts into…

  • A New Chapter Begins

    January 1, 2026 — A New Chapter Begins Today is January 1, 2026. A new year.A fresh page.A brand-new chapter waiting to be written. There’s something powerful about this day. It’s more than a change on the calendar—it’s an invitation. An invitation to breathe deep, to let go of what weighed us down in the…

  • Small-Town Hours

    “Small-town living teaches you many things… like checking store hours before you get hungry. Dadgum.” Living in a small town does take some getting used to. I’ve been home in Metlakatla for over a year now, and I’ll be honest—I’m still not used to the hours of the gas station, the grocery store, or the…

  • A Winter Thank You

    Honoring the unseen hands that keep our town moving through winter We are now in the heart of winter, and lately I’ve been pondering what it truly takes to keep our town moving during this season. Winter brings a certain kind of beauty with it. Kids are out sledding, laughing, and making memories in the…