Placemaker

I think I first read Christie Purifoy's words on a guest post on Ann Voskamp's blog. Christie was a few months from her book Roots & Sky coming on the market in 2016. I went to her blog and read some posts; but though I enjoyed them, I didn't want to spend $15 on her book. I shared earlier on my blog that I found Roots & Sky at my Goodwill store for seventy-five cents about a year after it was published.

 When Placemaker came out in 2019, I decided I would ask for it as a Christmas gift. I would suggest that you start with the newer book before reading Roots & Sky. Placemaker will fill you in on Christie's history as a married student just starting out setting up housekeeping and the subsequent developments in her life. I think it adds a layer of understanding to what she shares in Roots & Sky. She hasn't posted anything new on her blog in almost a year. She has branched out to podcasting. I find podcasts just too time-consuming and because I can't easily jot down voiced thoughts not as rewarding as reading.

I usually take notes when reading books like these. Christie has a writing style that flows, and I decided to read Placemaker's 200 or so pages uninterrupted. I then read it a second time. I don't mark up books with highlighting or underlining. I record notes in a little notebook. 

I enjoy her writing because she is an astute observer of what happens around her; she is contemplative and the stories she shares from her heart tend to have universal truths that we all can relate to; I like that she sees nature as God's gift.

As a new bride, Christie was interested in new things for her home. As a renter she couldn't change much, and as a student with a husband also a student, she didn't have much money. She would get permission to paint her apartments. Sometimes the landlord or manager would even pay for the paint. 

Once she and her husband graduated, they wanted to leave Texas, her native state, and travel or live elsewhere. She had dreams of exploring places. God led them to Virginia, then Chicago, then to Florida, and finally to southeastern Pennsylvania. She changed the places where she lived, but they also changed her. Instead of new she grew to appreciate the old, and currently lives in an old brick farmhouse called Maplehurst in the Brandywine Valley. 

Placemaker is arranged chronologically by the places she has lived with the chapters themed around trees. She finally discovered that she wanted roots, a place that felt like home (and her ideas about home changed). She wanted to belong someplace. In the end, she realized that her desire was really about heaven, her final place, but that God shapes and molds us through the places here on earth. God wants us to participate in tending and caring for His creation and people here. 

Her old farmhouse reminds her of decay and impermanence. She has to toil and invest money to make it the peaceful place she wants to share with her neighbors and visiting family. 

Christie struggled after leaving Hyde Park in Chicago where she earned her Masters Degree. She was barren and had an overwhelming desire for children. God finally gave her children. So many memories of having and raising children were tied up with this neighborhood. When her husband accepted a transfer to Florida for his job, she expected to be a vital part of a community as she had been in her previous locations. Instead she found a wilderness. She felt aimless. All her attempts to become part of her neighborhood and church and town produced no fruit. She had no more dreams for her life.

 Graciously, God gave her a dream which led her to Pennsylvania. She let go of her dream of teaching in a university but found purpose in writing blog posts and books. 
She says, "We often discover "the right place" only through trial and error, wandering and waiting, following and believing."

There are some interesting tidbits about places (Longwood Gardens), people (Johnny Chapman, the apple tree planter; the Quaker builder of her home; people settling in a "wilderness"), history about different vegetation and trees she has experienced. Restoration and preservation guide her at Maplehurst. She sees how God restores her as well.