This is a story about the search for a black barn.
Today we dig into what it feels like to watch your dream break into little bits and pieces you can’t make sense of. Christie takes us from Chicago to Florida to a small town in Pennsylvania that often reeks of mushroom farms and manure where she buried all her broken bits of hope and then watched them grow. If you’re like us then you already know that dreams usually look nothing and also everything like you hoped. There’s no straight road between what we dream and the realities we live and along the way all kinds of things we imagined, prayed, and hoped get broken. Let’s talk about that today.
Out of the Ordinary
The podcast for anyone who’s ever felt the nagging frustration of wondering if her life is too small, too boring or too ordinary to make a difference. Lisa-Jo Baker and Christie Purifoy, longtime friends and bestselling authors, explore the surprising ways that cultivating ordinary life leads to extraordinary stories.
Visit our official podcast page!
Christie Purifoy
Co-Host
A writer and gardener, her favorite ordinary things include strawberry jam, homegrown flowers, and old books with someone else’s notes in them.
Find Christie’s books here.
Lisa-Jo Baker
Co-Host
A reader and writer, her favorite ordinary things include hot tea with milk and sugar, a good movie, her mom’s hand-me-down books and Sunday afternoon naps.
Find Lisa-Jo’s books here.
RECENT PODCASTS
Ep. 24 – A Gift For The Listeners We Love
This is a story about placemaking around the table. This is Chapter Ten of Placemaker in Christie's own voice (can you hear a hint of Texas drawl?). Our favorite thing about podcasting is sharing stories with you in our own voices. With Christie's new book landing...
Ep. 23 – All Our Nosy Listener Questions Answered
This is a story about our nosy listeners whom we love! So many of you have had so many questions for us over the past few months. Here are all your answers! Christie and Lisa-Jo put their feet up, pour the tea, settle in with some chocolate and offer up the...
Ep. 22 – An Easy Way To Reset Your Day
This is a collection of love stories about the old fashioned cuppa tea. It's no secret that Lisa-Jo and Christie love a good cup of tea. Hot, cold, dark, red, or herbal tea is a hot trend these days. But Lisa-Jo's love for the sweet beverage was born even before...
#outoftheordinarypodcast is on Instagram!
💚💐Surprise! 💐💜 I created a flower garden planner and journal to help us grow—not only more flowers—but more beauty and joy. It’s a planner, it’s a journal, it’s a spark for your creativity. I’ve never found a garden journal that also works for non-planning artist types like me—so I made one!
.
My saved stories for an inside glimpse. Coming this October, it’s available for pre-order now!
.
#wearegardenmakers #myflowergardenlife #ahomeinbloom #seedtimeandharvest
View
Jul 19
Open
England in June is extra special primarily because of the roses. They were everywhere we went and seemed to grow effortlessly. A heaven on earth.
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I feel so grateful that I’ll be back in the Cotswolds next June retreating with 12 of you. I know it can be hard to take that leap of faith, to step into “yes,” and to do something for ourselves. But if this retreat idea is tugging at your soul, I hope you’ll follow the link in my profile to join our email list. Very soon we’ll be sharing all the details for next summer’s retreat with those who’ve signed up to that list. 💐
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#retreatintorestinthecotswolds
View
Jul 13
Open
The riskiest thing about our retreat in the Cotswolds was how few plans we made for filling the time. We organized a few (beautiful, inspiring) outings. We planned the food and prioritized time around the table. But otherwise, all we did was invite a group of women to step out of their everyday lives and slow down enough to hear the deepest things and so to be renewed. Which looks as ordinary as napping. Walking. Reading. Sitting. Being. 💗
.
@kimberlyacoyle offered a prayerful meditation each morning @suddenjourneys poured herself into food prep, creating meals that were art and I read poems and talked about William Morris just as often as someone was there to listen ☺️
.
Have you ever experienced this kind of transformative rest?
.
#retreatintorestinthecotswolds
View
Jul 3
Open
What’s it like to retreat into rest in the beautiful English countryside? Here’s a glimpse of our time in the Cotswolds. @kimberlyacoyle @suddenjourneys and I saw our dream come true: we wanted only to create the space for twelve women to encounter themselves again. To step away from our daily lives and known worlds through travel feels like a kind of emptying. But then we can be filled to overflowing by beauty, by quiet, by good food, and by deep conversation around tables. We’ll be sharing an invitation to next summer’s retreat very soon. 💐
.
#retreatintorestinthecotswolds #weareplacemakers
View
Jul 1
Open
Why seek rest through the risky means of travel? That’s a question I thought a lot about even before my two day adventure returning from England. To seek rest by leaving home is necessarily to put yourself in a position where you will need to be cared for. At home, for the most part, we can care for ourselves through routines, and control, and by living within our boundaries and margins. But when we leave home, anything can happen. When we aren’t in control, when we are outside of our comfort zone, will our needs still be met? Will we be seen and known and cared for in that place?
.
The answer is yes. But we can’t know that answer in advance or only in our heads. We have to live it. On the other side of our fears, on the other side of our anxieties, and in the places that are not home, we can know a kind of rest and a kind of peace that is only available when we are being held by something other than our own selves. Our worlds can fall apart, we can even fall apart, and still “all shall be well.”
.
#retreatintorest #retreatintorestinthecotswolds
View
Jun 28
Open
It’s my birthday eve. Tomorrow, I turn 47. The son born on my birthday will turn 18. I have always loved my June birthday and loved sharing it. For fifteen years—until her untimely death—I shared my birthday with my dear Aunt Sissie. Since 29, I’ve shared it with my son. This week I shared my birthday with someone on this retreat (this cake had 3 candles—two of us have birthdays tomorrow, and one celebrated earlier this week). I guess I wanted to write this all out to say that every June I am overwhelmed by a joy and a gratitude that begs to be shared.
View
Jun 22
Open
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💚💐Surprise! 💐💜 I created a flower garden planner and journal to help us grow—not only more flowers—but more beauty and joy. It’s a planner, it’s a journal, it’s a spark for your creativity. I’ve never found a garden journal that also works for non-planning artist types like me—so I made one!
.
My saved stories for an inside glimpse. Coming this October, it’s available for pre-order now!
.
#wearegardenmakers #myflowergardenlife #ahomeinbloom #seedtimeandharvest
Jul 19
England in June is extra special primarily because of the roses. They were everywhere we went and seemed to grow effortlessly. A heaven on earth.
.
I feel so grateful that I’ll be back in the Cotswolds next June retreating with 12 of you. I know it can be hard to take that leap of faith, to step into “yes,” and to do something for ourselves. But if this retreat idea is tugging at your soul, I hope you’ll follow the link in my profile to join our email list. Very soon we’ll be sharing all the details for next summer’s retreat with those who’ve signed up to that list. 💐
.
#retreatintorestinthecotswolds
Jul 13
The riskiest thing about our retreat in the Cotswolds was how few plans we made for filling the time. We organized a few (beautiful, inspiring) outings. We planned the food and prioritized time around the table. But otherwise, all we did was invite a group of women to step out of their everyday lives and slow down enough to hear the deepest things and so to be renewed. Which looks as ordinary as napping. Walking. Reading. Sitting. Being. 💗
.
@kimberlyacoyle offered a prayerful meditation each morning @suddenjourneys poured herself into food prep, creating meals that were art and I read poems and talked about William Morris just as often as someone was there to listen ☺️
.
Have you ever experienced this kind of transformative rest?
.
#retreatintorestinthecotswolds
Jul 3
What’s it like to retreat into rest in the beautiful English countryside? Here’s a glimpse of our time in the Cotswolds. @kimberlyacoyle @suddenjourneys and I saw our dream come true: we wanted only to create the space for twelve women to encounter themselves again. To step away from our daily lives and known worlds through travel feels like a kind of emptying. But then we can be filled to overflowing by beauty, by quiet, by good food, and by deep conversation around tables. We’ll be sharing an invitation to next summer’s retreat very soon. 💐
.
#retreatintorestinthecotswolds #weareplacemakers
Jul 1
Why seek rest through the risky means of travel? That’s a question I thought a lot about even before my two day adventure returning from England. To seek rest by leaving home is necessarily to put yourself in a position where you will need to be cared for. At home, for the most part, we can care for ourselves through routines, and control, and by living within our boundaries and margins. But when we leave home, anything can happen. When we aren’t in control, when we are outside of our comfort zone, will our needs still be met? Will we be seen and known and cared for in that place?
.
The answer is yes. But we can’t know that answer in advance or only in our heads. We have to live it. On the other side of our fears, on the other side of our anxieties, and in the places that are not home, we can know a kind of rest and a kind of peace that is only available when we are being held by something other than our own selves. Our worlds can fall apart, we can even fall apart, and still “all shall be well.”
.
#retreatintorest #retreatintorestinthecotswolds
Jun 28
It’s my birthday eve. Tomorrow, I turn 47. The son born on my birthday will turn 18. I have always loved my June birthday and loved sharing it. For fifteen years—until her untimely death—I shared my birthday with my dear Aunt Sissie. Since 29, I’ve shared it with my son. This week I shared my birthday with someone on this retreat (this cake had 3 candles—two of us have birthdays tomorrow, and one celebrated earlier this week). I guess I wanted to write this all out to say that every June I am overwhelmed by a joy and a gratitude that begs to be shared.
Jun 22
Would it be possible for you to provide transcripts of the podcasts for those of us who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, please? We’re being inadvertently excluded from a lot of online conversations with this shift from blogging to podcasts. Thank you!
Thank you, Lucy, for taking the time to share your experience with me. Transcription is something Lisa-Jo and I have considered since we first began discussing the idea for a podcast, but, unfortunately, the high cost and a few other technological factors have been significant hurdles. However, we are committed to doing our best to offer this service in the future!
For transcripts try http://www.otter.ai
Thanks, Ruth.