Today we are celebrating a the release of Christie Purify’s new book Placemaker; Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty, and Peace.
Being a part of her book launch team is one of the best experiences ever because it feels like a group of best friends gathering on a Saturday afternoon each curled up on couch with a cup of tea.
Scattered throughout this review are bits of my story and the pictures of the current trees in my life.
I first fell in love with Christie’s writing when I read Roots and Sky; A Journey Home in Four Seasons. Her writing is warm, gentle and makes you feel right at home.
In Placemaker, Christie eloquently weaves her story with the story of the trees she and her family encountered in every place they lived from Texas, to Chicago, IL, to Florida and finally to an old red brick farmhouse called Maplehurst in Pennsylvania. A story filled with the beauty and peace of each place despite the challenges encountered.
The book is also about community and belonging, about opening your homes to family and friends even though you just moved in, and it’s about cultivating beauty, comfort and peace whether you are walking though a season of abundance or though a wilderness season.
Definition
What is a Placemaker? It is someone who willingly sinks their roots deep, even though they might be there for a short time.
Making and tending good and beautiful places is not a dishonorable retreat. It is a holy pursuit.
Christie Purifoy
Placemaker; Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty, and Peace
Trees?
Trees first came to mean something special to Christie because of the cover of The Magician’s Nephew one of the Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. However, the cover of her copy is not all about trees but somehow they were what she remembered. Guess God was preparing her to write this book even as a child.
Then she discovered that trees spread their roots down and out and feed off one another. They are a community serving one another.
We are to be like trees, sink our roots deep and serve our neighbors.
Sinking roots deep is what Joe and I did when we moved here. We developed wonderful relationships with our neighbors and we have been there walking each other through a garden or wilderness. While there are a few other reasons, my neighbors are the main reason I have never moved – and have no intention of moving.
The trees know waht we struggle to accept; it is right and good to love my neighbor as myself.
Christie Purifoy
Placemaker; Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty, and Peace
A Life of Trees
At first I found myself jealous of how she was able to tell her and her family’s story through the trees that inhabited every place they lived.
Then I remembered, well duh! You can tell your life story through experiences with trees starting with the chestnut tree of your childhood and ending with
the maple tree on my tree lawn and the trees in the woods behind this house.
A Wilderness of Discontent
Like all stories, Christie’s contains chapters about grief, loss and walking through her wilderness season in Florida. A season of running out of dreams, not feeling appreciated, and making new friends at church but they all live on the other side of the city.
Like winter, the wilderness is always a promise. God leads us in and, one way or another, he leads us out again. Or, if he doesn’t lead us out, he does something almost more miraculous: he plants trees in the desert, and he causes rivers to flow there.
Christie Purifoy
Placemaker; Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty, and Peace
Yes, God lead Christie out of the wilderness in Florida to a tree-lined driveway in Pennsylvania.
My Wilderness
In April 2018 I was writing my 10 Year A Widow series, about the lessons learned since Joe’s passing, I was overcome with tiredness. It was as if someone stuck a straw in me and sucked all the life and energy out of me. It’s what led to reduced blogging and…reduced placemaking. I gave up and this house looks like I’ve given up on it and life in general.
Until now.
Thank you Christie for reminding me of the importance of placemaking and that it is a holy endeavor. Your book is nourishment my soul desperately needs.
My Favorite Chapter
In the chapter titled Rainbow Eucalyptus and Roses, A Place For Those Who Mourn, Christie writes about her brother-in-law Shawn Campbell’s passing off the shores of Oahu. It is a beautiful, eloquent tribute to Shawn.
You will need tissues.
However, after reading about the last event in that chapter, you will be saying “Only God.” Because only God could have planned and carried out that tree event. It has Romans 8:28 written all over it.
Romans 8:28
28 And we know that God causes everything to work together[a for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
New Living Bible (NLT)
The Placemaker Effect
Christie’s book will inspire you and cause you to reflect upon not only how you can be a placemaker but how where you live changes you.
So if you are looking for a place to be deeply rooted in peace, start by sinking your roots deep into reading Placemaker.
Thank You, Christie
Thank you, Christie for writing a beautiful, uplifting book. I pray it will encourage those walking through a wilderness and inspire those in a garden season to sink their roots deep and wide where ever God has placed them.
I leave you with one final quote, that sums up why this world needs us to be placemakers.
With God’s help, we can pick up the pieces of an old and dying world, and we can make them new. We can make a place where beauty and peace can take root, flourish, and grow.
Christie Purifoy
Placemaker; Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty, and Peace
Additional Resources
Roots and Sky; A Journey Home in Four Seasons – Christie’s first book.
Out of the Ordinary Podcast Christie does with good friend Lisa Jo Baker
ChristiePurifoy.com – A Spacious Place – Christie’s blog
The Legal Pad: All links on this post are non-affiliate links. I am a member of the Placemaker book launch team and received a free copy of Christie’s book in advance of today’s release date. However, the one I pre-ordered on July 3rd, 2018 arrives today. 😀
Bio: Michele Kearns is the founder and HUG© (Hope Unites Globally) Award-Winner of JoyReturns. She shares her widowhood adventures hoping to encourage widows to move through grief and rebuild their lives. A graduate of Kent State University with a Bachelor’s degree in communications, she’s used those skills while managing call center teams, facilitating a grief support group and helping small businesses with various writing and administrative assignments. Michele is a bookworm, lover of chocolate, red roses and golden retrievers and is an amateur photographer.
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