The world needs this book! You need this book 🙂 The Turquoise Table is a book about community. A book about belonging. In a world that seems more divisive than ever, Kristin Schell is a breath of fresh air. One day she decided to paint a picnic table turquoise and throw it in her front year. Crazy? Maybe.
What happened next sounds like something from a movie. It wasn’t big and flashy. It was simple, which ended up actually being much bigger. Kristin fought past the doubt about whether or not anyone would show up and brought people back to what we all long for – a simpler time. She invited her neighbors to come and sit – to get to know her and to be known by her. It didn’t include cleaning up her house or making a big meal, but it made an impact and created a wave of turquoise tables all over the United States.
The Turquoise Table: Kristin Schell
The Turquoise Table Summary
“Loneliness is an epidemic right now, but it doesn’t have to be that way. The Turquoise Table is Kristin Schell’s invitation to you to connect with your neighbors and build friendships. Featured in Southern Living, Good Housekeeping, and the TODAY Show, Kristin introduces a new way to look at hospitality.
Desperate for a way to slow down and connect, Kristin put an ordinary picnic table in her front yard, painted it turquoise, and began inviting friends and neighbors to join her. Life changed in her community, and it can change in yours too.”
– Amazon.com
The Turquoise Table Quotes
I’ll tell you the story of the Turquoise Table and how it’s led to a movement of Front Yard People — people just like you and me who want to create community right where they live. It’s a story that flows from my experience as a Christian, and at the same time you’ll see this table is not about a special person or a particular faith. The Turquoise Table is a place for everyone from every walk of life to sit down in safety, dignity, respect, and love — to be heard and to belong. (p. 9)
Our culture idolized busyness, and without knowing it, we’d fallen prey to a false sense of connection. And we continued to sit in the driver’s seat of our minivans, scratching our heads, wondering, Is this it? (p. 19)
We live in the digital age — the most connected era in all of history — yet statistics show we’re lonelier than ever. We live in a chatty world, but we have lost the power to communicate. We’re starving for connection that can’t be found in a tweet or text, but only face-to-face community. (p. 22)
Then doubt showed up like an unexpected guest. All the what-ifs clogged my mind. What would people think about a turquoise picnic table in my front yard? Was it too bright? Too close to the street? Too casual? Too weird? Worst of all, I grappled with the underlying fear of rejection: What if no one came? (p. 53)
We’ve got to debunk the myth that hospitality is the same as entertainment. Genuine hospitality begins with opening our lives. It’s just as important to open up our lives as it is our homes, and sharing who we are is far more important than sharing what we bake. (p. 78)
[T]he word hospitality comes from two Greek roots: philos, which means “love,” and xenos, which means “stranger.” Hospitality is the love of strangers. When we take Romans 12:13 literally, we are to take every opportunity to open our lives and homes to others. (p. 120-121)
By design, picnic tables are not a place to sit alone; they invite community, especially when you gather out front, where everyone can see. It’s a place where all people belong, and belonging is the ultimate gift of community. (p. 200)
The Turquoise Table Review
I found The Turquoise Table at a discount store and was drawn to its beauty. It’s not a book you put on a shelf. It’s one you set out on a table. The cover is beautiful. The pages are beautiful. I also knew someone who had painted a table turquoise and put it in her yard, so I was familiar with the concept.
By the time I read it I had spent a few years as a stay-at-home mom and was kind of starved for community. Reading the book definitely made me want to throw a picnic table in my front yard and start lovingly attacking my neighbors, but I realized a better application of The Turquoise Table was to just start opening our home.
Going back through the book made me realize how much of an influence reading it has had on our life. From inviting people over to sharing our lives to baking simple fun things and trying to create a space where people feel welcome, safe, and at home Kristin Schell has changed my life by sharing her story.
That may sound big and life-changing, but it’s really been super simple.
Most days people come over and I’m 30 minutes late to my own party. Know what I mean…?
I think we hear of other people doing incredible things, and we think they’re too big for us to accomplish. You could walk away from reading The Turquoise Table with that same thought, but you really shouldn’t. It’s simple.
Just share your life. Talk to your neighbor. Invite someone over for dinner or out to lunch. We live in a connection-starved world. But no one else is going to change that. It starts with us, and I think The Turquoise Table is a great book to get us going.
Because there’s a better way,
Sarah
If you’d like to check out this book on Amazon, click here: The Turquoise Table
This blog contains amazon affiliate links. We may earn from qualifying purchases, at no additional cost to you.
If you choose to purchase through one of our links, thank you for supporting our blog!
