For many years a stand-in for the little bird that captured my son’s heart and brought light into our life has traveled with me everywhere I go. For the first time, as I gazed at the cathedral in Santiago, it became clear that it was time to pass her on to another pilgrim in this life. Frightful and I parted ways in Santiago de Compostela where she hitched a ride in the pack of a fellow pilgrim we met on the Camino.

J, a beautiful woman who has a remarkable story, and whose heart has had much grief to bear, traveled with Frightful the last ~20 kilometers to Spain’s wild western edge, Cape Finisterre (World’s End) where she perched on a rock that people once believed was the end of the world. Two pilgrims, one feathered and one featherless, gazed across the vast Atlantic Ocean, beyond the blue horizon, to the east coast of the Americas.

When this picture pinged to life on my phone today, I imagined Frightful telling J her story: “Oh the places I have been, and the hearts I have encountered…” This photograph captures quiet emotion and eager anticipation as the two travelers look towards a blank canvas of possibilities.

Frightful now sits on J’s desk in an office on the outskirts of Boston, near Cape Cod. She is a powerful reminder that God can redeem years that have been stolen by darkness. I believe the story of Frightful will not only bring light into this fellow pilgrim’s world, I believe she can help form a robust community of truth-tellers in J’s life.

A good story is never meant to be kept in the dark. It is meant to be shared with the world.

Buen Camino!

All my love, Kristin