Friends, the release of my novel, Where the Wings Rise, is less than a month away! So, to celebrate, I’m doing something a little different: today’s blog is based not on an encounter I’ve had in nature, but on an event that takes place within the pages of my book! I’m joining an excerpt from the story with a reflection on the truth it reveals—and how it impacts our lives. Read on for this special release!
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Addisyn parked in the little lot beside the Bluefeather Boutique and sat for a moment in the car, her palms sweaty on the wheel. Would this job offer really be a good fit for her? What if she didn’t like it? Or what if this Skyla Wingo woman didn’t want her help after all?
Come on. She forced herself out of the car and slung her purse over her shoulder. When she pushed open the glass door to the shop, a copper bell attached to a feathered ornament tinkled. With soft ambient lighting and the haunting lilt of Native American flute music, the store had the nobility of an elegant showroom, with paintings and crafts and even furniture.
A silent figure flicked into her peripheral vision. Addisyn yelped and jerked away, banging her foot on a cabinet. The lamp on top clattered to the floor. “Oh! I’m sorry.” She cringed as she stared at the person who’d startled her—a tall woman with dark hair that rippled halfway down her back. She couldn’t bear to look at the lamp. “Did I break it?”
“It is fine.” Copper bracelets jingling, the woman scooped up the lamp and settled it on the cabinet, then adjusted it a millimeter to the left. “Please do be careful, though. All of our items are uniques.”
Hello to you too. Addisyn studied the woman’s face—resolute features and veiled dark eyes without the hint of a smile. She swallowed a sinking feeling. “Are you Skyla Wingo?”
“Yes.” The woman didn’t offer her hand. “But the store is not open for business yet.”
“Um, actually, I’m here to—to maybe work.” She’d almost said to help, but something told her Skyla Wingo did not need or want help. “Laz—Mr. Jobe—he recommended me to you, I think—or at least to your husband—he said—”
“Oh, yes.” Skyla nodded regally. “He spoke of you.” She tipped her head and studied Addisyn. “Well. I trust that if you work here, you’ll be more careful with the merchandise?”
The whole thing was sort of Skyla’s fault for having some kind of ninja stealth skills, but she’d let that pass. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Very well.” Skyla fingered the silver wolf locket she wore. “As I’m sure my husband mentioned, we sell unique items made by local artisans through a consignment process. And the proceeds fund the Estes Valley Raptor Center, where my husband’s team rehabilitates injured birds. It is a good arrangement for everyone. We have crafts and furniture and paintings too.” Skyla waved toward a separate wall, where special sconces illuminated a checkerboard of canvases.
“They’re beautiful.” Addisyn took a step closer to inspect a painting of a chick bursting from a shell. She noticed the name at the bottom and blinked. “This is yours?”
Amazingly, Skyla actually smiled—a small smile, but still enough to make her look far less formidable. “Yes.” She nodded toward a closed door in the corner of the shop. “That leads to my studio. I work in the afternoons, when the lighting is right.”
“That’s really cool. The painting is lovely.” Addisyn studied Skyla with a sudden respect. The woman could stand to improve her interpersonal skills, but clearly she had an artistic gift. Addisyn turned back to the painting, noticing the words across the top of the canvas. “What does that mean? Two Cor—Corinth—”
“Corinthians.” Skyla cleared her throat. “It is a Scripture.”
“Oh.” The single syllable sounded rude even to her. She sighed and tried again. “What’s it say?”
Skyla gazed at the painting as if it were a window to a reality only she could see. “It says that those who hold out hearts to God are new creations.” Her words were slow, measured. “They are broken down and built back up as He changes them.”
There was a certain intrigue about the idea. “Do you believe that?”
“Yes.” The word was quiet, but it held a bedrock certainty. “I believe it like I believe in the wind and the waters. Like I believe in the rivers that flow from the heart of the mountains. Like I believe in the snows that fall and the suns that melt and the great wheels that spin the stars.”
The music of the words, the intensity of Skyla’s faith, caught Addisyn off guard. “That’s neat.” The statement sounded weak.
Skyla fixed Addisyn with her gaze. “What about you?”
An uncertain laugh caught in her throat. “What about me?”
“You do not believe?”
“It’s—well—” Discomfort crept up her spine. “I just think—I mean, that’s great—but I don’t know much about all that spiritual stuff.”
“Really?” Skyla said the word as if Addisyn’s stuttered answer was an admission of guilt. “You have never lived that verse?”
Embarrassment blurred into indignation. This was getting way too personal. Addisyn bristled. “I’m sorry?”
“Forgive me. But I have never met someone who did not want a second chance at some time or another.”
A second chance. Wasn’t that what she’d come to the mountains for? “Well—yes.” Addisyn sighed, her irritation fading. “That’s why I’m here. I came for a new start. To—to make some things right. Things I messed up when—” Stop. She clamped her mouth shut. Skyla didn’t need to know her whole biography.
Skyla nodded deliberately. “I see.”
Was this part of the interview, or what? If her employment hung on a spiritual confession, she was doomed. “Do I have to be a—a believer to work here?”
“Of course not.” Skyla dismissed the idea with a flick of her hand. “My husband and I have worked with the birds for years. We understand that healing takes time, and it is a long journey. I merely wanted to know if you were on it.”
Addisyn gave up. In just a moment, Skyla would quit talking in riddles and simply tell her that her help wasn’t needed. And then she would have lost her one chance at—
“Addisyn.”
“Ma’am?”
“Would you like to work here?”
Addisyn waited a heartbeat, but Skyla’s unreadable expression didn’t change. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Sometimes the wings are folded at first, but they always open.” Skyla seemed to be speaking to herself.
“What was that?”
But Skyla simply shook her head and clapped her hands softly. “Very well. You are hired. Come to the back room, and you may begin.”
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That moment—Addisyn’s introduction to Skyla Wingo—marks a turning point not only in the external events of the book but also in Addisyn’s personal journey. Although Addisyn is at first repelled by Skyla’s cryptic personality, she can’t help but admire the way Skyla unapologetically proclaims the sacred story that weaves through her life. And so, for the first time, she feels free to admit the thing she longs for the most, the thing she’s come to Colorado to find, the thing that Skyla is willing to offer her—a second chance.
The circumstances that have caused Addisyn to crave redemption so desperately are unique to her (more on that in the book!). But while we may not find ourselves discussing faith with mysterious gift shop proprietors, we’ve all, at one time or another, found ourselves longing for a do-over…a chance, as Addisyn says, “to make things right.”
Maybe it’s a single moment of weakness, or maybe it’s years of accumulated mistakes. Maybe it’s a public failing, or maybe it’s a secret struggle seen only by us. Whatever the specifics, the result is the same—we’re left seeking ways to disentangle ourselves from the pull of the past. Maybe we create physical distance—switching jobs or changing relationships or even moving to a new location. Perhaps we devote ourselves to atonement, heaping up as many good deeds as possible in an effort to erase the less-than-stellar past. Maybe we even seek to simply ignore the past—push it down, lock it up, and shove the discomfort it causes to the darkest corners of our soul.
These are all common approaches, and throughout Where the Wings Rise, Addisyn tries all of them as she grapples with the years of wrongdoing she so bitterly regrets. I don’t want to give away the story by sharing more details about Addisyn’s time in Colorado and her job with Skyla. But suffice it to say that during her adventures there, she eventually learns what all of us do—that no matter how far we run or how hard we work or how resolutely we distract ourselves, we can’t break the power of the past on our own. Paradoxically, though, this frees us to accept a far greater truth: genuine second chances are not earned by human accomplishments; they’re generously offered by the nail-pierced hands of Jesus.
“Those who hold out hearts to God are new creations,” Skyla tells Addisyn. “They are broken down and built back up as He changes them.” And that’s the promise. You see, God doesn’t sweep our past under the rug or hold it as blackmail over our souls or grudgingly grant us another opportunity to “prove” ourselves. He doesn’t fix our past; He forgives it. He took the pain and the guilt on His own shoulders. As Addisyn has to learn, no matter how broken we consider ourselves or how shadowed our story, healing is one choice away—the choice to accept God’s amazing grace and forever fly free with Him.
Friend, I hope you enjoyed this special release today! it was so much fun sharing from this story, and I can’t wait for you to read Addisyn’s journey for yourself. Where the Wings Rise is available for preorder on Amazon and from my website and will be releasing on August 29! I’ll be sending out the official book trailer on August 15 to newsletter subscribers, so stay tuned!