#PAPERBACKPIC #3

ROOTS & SKY
A Journey Home in Four Seasons
AUTHOR: Christie Purifoy
Published by Revell; a division of Baker Publishing Group Grand Rapids, MI USA

When I was a pre-teen my sister read my diary.  In it she found some incriminating evidence of a not-so-age-appropriate Judy Blume book my cousin and I were secretly reading together that led my parents to its hiding place.   Boy did I get in trouble!

I remember being so upset that my sister read my diary, the pages where I poured out my heart and asked questions I didn’t want anyone to know I had.

Christie’s book felt like an intimate journey through her private journals, but don’ worry, it’s completely G-rated, unlike my Judy Blume book!   I have never read such an eloquently written book.  In contrast to my private diaries, Christie’s words are poetic and have this earthy sort of rhythm.

Christie truly is an artist with her words.

Through the book, you enter Christie’s life at a time of great change.  She makes a profound statement when she says,

“I had arrived at both the beginning and the end of a journey.”¹ 

The truth that every new path starts at the end of an old road helps you to make the next step on your new trail.

I love how Christie doesn’t share all the answers, but all the questions about life she was asking.  She brings the reader along in the process that led to deep personal discoveries.    I love how she took the time to notice what was going on in her life at every season and see God at work in the midst of all she faced.

It was poetic perfection that in the midst of this new chapter for her family that a baby was born.  The birth of Elsa Spring symbolizes the newness of the times for this young family in following after their dream.  When Christie talked about how dreams start I was captivated.

“Perhaps it begins…with birth pains.”² 

We all want to live out our God-given dreams, but how often to we give up when difficult circumstances arise?  Too often we’re like the seed planted on the rocks that don’t take root. Through Christie’s writing you see how moving into something new that God has for your life doesn’t happen overnight.  It took time for her to feel “at home” in her dream house.

Growth is a process.
A beautiful journey only the strong take.

If you sense that something new is around the corner or struggling to accept a new situation in your life, this book could be the guide to help you see the beauty of the journey.

My name is Christie Purifoy. I live with my husband and four children at Maplehurst, an old, brick farmhouse in southeastern Pennsylvania.

My book Roots and Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons was published by Revell on February 2, 2016.

In 2010, I received a PhD in English Literature from the University of Chicago. A few years later I traded the classroom for a picket-fenced garden and an old writing desk. Today, I grow zucchini my four children refuse to eat. The zucchini-loving chickens are perfectly happy with this arrangement.

I believe that life, in all its pain and beauty and mystery, is a journey of love. Writing keeps my eyes wide-open to this astonishing reality.

Christie’s blog, A Spacious Place can be found on her website:
https://www.christiepurifoy.com/

¹   Pg.14
²   Pg. 27