Speaker 1: The book The Turquoise Table by Kristin Schell is our
Speaker 1: podcast sponsor.
Speaker 2: Kristin, desperate for a way.
Speaker 1: To slow down and connect, put an ordinary picnic table
Speaker 1: in the front yard, painted at turquoise, and began inviting
Speaker 1: friends and neighbors to join.
Speaker 2: Her.
Speaker 1: Life changed in her community, and it can change in
Speaker 1: yours too. Alongside personal and heartwarming stories, you'll read about
Speaker 1: some stress free ideas for kickstarting your own turquoise table,
Speaker 1: simple recipes to take outside and share with others, stories
Speaker 1: from people using turquoise tables in their neighborhoods. You'll find
Speaker 1: The Turquoise Table on sale everywhere books are sold.
Speaker 3: Hi, Delilah, it's Kristin Shell.
Speaker 2: Hi Kristin, how are you.
Speaker 3: I'm excited to be talking to you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: You're welcome so much. I'm excited be talking to you
Speaker 1: and to share the concept and the hope of the
Speaker 1: Turquoise Table with all of my listeners.
Speaker 3: Wow, thank you.
Speaker 2: You know it's funny.
Speaker 1: As I heard about your book and then delved into
Speaker 1: it a little bit, I thought, oh my gosh, this
Speaker 1: is what I tried to do on the radio every night,
Speaker 1: in a very tangible, real anyone can do this get
Speaker 1: to know your neighbor's sort of way.
Speaker 2: You've taken such.
Speaker 1: A beautiful thing and made it so simple for everyone
Speaker 1: to reach out in love.
Speaker 3: Well, absolutely, I think we might be kindreds in that way,
Speaker 3: and I certainly have learned a lot from you.
Speaker 1: So tell me about your personal turquoise table and what
Speaker 1: led you to decide to do that and put it
Speaker 1: out in the yard.
Speaker 3: So it's been almost four years since I put an
Speaker 3: ordinary picnic table in my front yard, painted it turculi,
Speaker 3: in the hopes of getting to know my neighbors and
Speaker 3: building community, you know, kind of right where we live.
Speaker 3: But that story, which is always way more interesting, is
Speaker 3: really kind of the fascinating part of it, the and
Speaker 3: the journey of it. And so when I was in
Speaker 3: middle school and I was I ended up going to
Speaker 3: I was beat up in my middle school years. And
Speaker 3: we all know seventh and eighth grade is not a
Speaker 3: ton of fun anyway, and so when you get beat up,
Speaker 3: it's just it's not a good thing. And so my
Speaker 3: parents took me out of the school that I was
Speaker 3: in and sent me to just a neighborhood you know,
Speaker 3: parochial school, just a Christian school in our neighborhood. But
Speaker 3: that particular school had a different set of rules for
Speaker 3: chapel services and for taking communion, and so since I
Speaker 3: wasn't the same denomination, I wasn't allowed to have communion.
Speaker 3: And so, you know, looking back now, you know it
Speaker 3: was I was not invited to that table, and it hurt.
Speaker 3: It was awful, you know, being in that awkward you know,
Speaker 3: kind of preteen and teenage early years. It wasn't it
Speaker 3: wasn't a lot of fun. And so ever since then,
Speaker 3: there's been this just this like desire to belong and
Speaker 3: to be included, not only for myself, but then to
Speaker 3: notice people who maybe don't belong or won't have a
Speaker 3: seat of the table and welcome them. And so the
Speaker 3: story ends up, you know, really really good. I made
Speaker 3: my way back to church and to God, and you know,
Speaker 3: as my relationship and space we're growing in my walk
Speaker 3: with the Lord was growing, I took that table idea
Speaker 3: and one it took place where all people could be welcome,
Speaker 3: but I didn't know how.
Speaker 2: To do it. So what inspired you?
Speaker 1: I mean, I get the backstory, but what made you
Speaker 1: think one day I'm just going to put a picnic
Speaker 1: table in my front yard and see who'll come and
Speaker 1: sit down with me.
Speaker 3: Well that's pretty much what I did. It was almost
Speaker 3: like a dare you know. And it was I was
Speaker 3: having a party with a friend and we needed a
Speaker 3: really inexpensive table or two for this for this party,
Speaker 3: and so I ordered an ordinary, you know, picnic table,
Speaker 3: and you know, you can visualize the exact one. It's
Speaker 3: the most you know, normal picnic table out there. And
Speaker 3: so I had it delivered and they're heavy. Picnic tables
Speaker 3: are heavy, wooden ones are and so the delivery guys
Speaker 3: left it in our front yard kind of right near
Speaker 3: the edge of the street. And then they came to
Speaker 3: get me to ask where do you want this picnic table?
Speaker 3: And when I saw it, oh my goodness, Alilah, it
Speaker 3: was like this aha moment. It was this moment of
Speaker 3: you know, maybe it belongs right there. I am going
Speaker 3: to leave it right there. And I know that sounds crazy,
Speaker 3: but I did. You would, of course put it in
Speaker 3: the backyard for the party. But that next week we
Speaker 3: painted at turquoise because it's my favorite color, and we
Speaker 3: put it right back out in the front yard. And
Speaker 3: so the idea and the concept, you know, it was
Speaker 3: just a hypothesis at the time, was Okay, what if
Speaker 3: what if we take our backyard activities are you know,
Speaker 3: things were doing normally, you know, eating dinner, doing homework,
Speaker 3: having you know, lemonade stance. What if we were to
Speaker 3: do all of these things at this table and invite
Speaker 3: others to join us?
Speaker 1: And what did what did your neighbors think when you
Speaker 1: first went and knocked on the door and said, hey,
Speaker 1: we're having hot dogs out in the front yard instead
Speaker 1: of hiding away in the backyard, want to come and
Speaker 1: join us?
Speaker 3: And that's exactly what we did for the very first day.
Speaker 3: Though before I had the courage because this is a
Speaker 3: little you know, this is this could be kind of crazy, right,
Speaker 3: I mean, a turquoise technic table in the front yard.
Speaker 3: So before and then hindsight, I probably should have asked,
Speaker 3: you know, permission and not forgiveness. But I didn't go
Speaker 3: around the very first day and say, hey, guys, I'm
Speaker 3: putting a table in the front yard. I actually put
Speaker 3: the table in the front yard and went outside and
Speaker 3: sat there, and that day I met a neighbor and
Speaker 3: a woman who I had never even seen at the
Speaker 3: grocery store, the post office. I've never even seen her
Speaker 3: drive by, and she was walking in the neighborhood and
Speaker 3: she stopped and we started a conversation immediately, and you know,
Speaker 3: thirty minutes later we're sitting at the table having a
Speaker 3: great conversation and Susan, you know, who I never would
Speaker 3: have met, are most likely would never have met, and
Speaker 3: I now you know, we're friends. And so that's how
Speaker 3: it started at my table. It was very spontaneous and
Speaker 3: really quite frankly in all honesty, not very well thought through.
Speaker 3: You know, I just but it was real.
Speaker 1: You don't you don't think through real when something happens
Speaker 1: that's real, you don't think it's through. You know, it's
Speaker 1: not a planned thing. It's not a purposeful thing. It's
Speaker 1: like when somebody takes a great snapshot of their kid
Speaker 1: playing in the sprinkler.
Speaker 2: It's real.
Speaker 1: Then you see somebody who's posed and hired lighting and
Speaker 1: a featigeographer.
Speaker 3: That's not real, right, right, So this was trust me,
Speaker 3: it's real, and it still was very real at the table.
Speaker 3: So that was my you know, just first encounter. But
Speaker 3: you know what it was to it was such encouragement
Speaker 3: that you know that that here you did within five
Speaker 3: minutes of meeting somewhere that it was time to maybe
Speaker 3: take the next step and do it again. And so
Speaker 3: I did this the very next day, and the kids
Speaker 3: and I went out and had dinner. I mean, I
Speaker 3: don't even remember what it was, but I guarantee it
Speaker 3: was on paper plates, and it was whatever we were
Speaker 3: going to be eating any anyway. And so we tried dinner,
Speaker 3: and you know, he waved at people messing and miraculous,
Speaker 3: are out of the ordinary happened that night? Except we
Speaker 3: got come stable and so we enjoyed being out there.
Speaker 3: And then I invited a couple of neighbors to time
Speaker 3: have coffee. Then you know, it simple and very spontaneous. Hey,
Speaker 3: tomorrow morning, you want to come sit at the turf
Speaker 3: place table. And that's when you know they were like,
Speaker 3: what is this? What are you doing? What's the idea
Speaker 3: behind it? And I just shared my heart. There wasn't
Speaker 3: a plan. There wasn't I just said, Hey, what if
Speaker 3: what if we were used to use This is a
Speaker 3: really you know, simple gathering place for all of us
Speaker 3: to come to the table, and there's no rules, there's
Speaker 3: there's no plan. Let's just try it out.
Speaker 2: And now it's become a thing. It's become like a
Speaker 2: movement across the country.
Speaker 3: It's that crazy. It's a thing, Delilah.
Speaker 2: It's a thing.
Speaker 1: It's a thing, and it doesn't even have to be
Speaker 1: a turquoise thing.
Speaker 3: It doesn't even have to be a turquoise thing. In fact,
Speaker 3: you know, really the rally cry now is to live
Speaker 3: as front yard people. And you know, whether that's at
Speaker 3: a turquoise table or out on that tiers or a
Speaker 3: front porch swing or whatever works in your neighborhood and
Speaker 3: your community. It's just about, you know, living more accessibly
Speaker 3: and in community with one another.
Speaker 1: I think that's so funny because that's a buzzword. That's
Speaker 1: such a phrase. Now you hear it pastors from the pulp,
Speaker 1: but you hear it from graduation podiums, you hear it
Speaker 1: in you know those online videos you can go watch
Speaker 1: where you get all pumped up. Everybody talks about community.
Speaker 1: And yet I live in a community. I live like
Speaker 1: in a village. I've got family and friends that live
Speaker 1: on my property and kids, and I take in other kids,
Speaker 1: and we have foster kids and stray kids. And people
Speaker 1: say to me, that's so weird.
Speaker 2: Why do you do that?
Speaker 1: Because I believe God created us to live in community.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, but that that's weird that you have people
Speaker 1: sleeping on your floor they don't have a place to live, right,
Speaker 1: So I believe in community.
Speaker 2: Well that's just weird.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, and I live in Austin, where you know,
Speaker 3: our city motto is, you know, keep Austen weird. So
Speaker 3: maybe I had an edge up by putting a you know,
Speaker 3: turquoise technic table in my front yard. But you know,
Speaker 3: it's not, of course weird.
Speaker 2: It's not weird.
Speaker 1: It's what our parents and our grandparents and our great
Speaker 1: grandparents do. It's what people in developing nations how they live.
Speaker 1: It's what God intended is for is to be a
Speaker 1: part of a family, a village, a community of hearts connecting.
Speaker 2: It's not weird. It's no good. It's it's wonderful, I know.
Speaker 3: So what's weird is that we were not doing it intuitively.
Speaker 3: I mean, if we want to talk about weird, you
Speaker 3: know when my husband and I laugh, now that you
Speaker 3: know that, I get to talk about trying to create community,
Speaker 3: which is I mean, it's the oldest thing. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's the oldest thing. Ever, it's there's nothing new about it.
Speaker 3: We just need a reminder because there's so many distractions
Speaker 3: and we're pulled in so many different ways via social media.
Speaker 3: Are just schedule rules or just this this crazy you know,
Speaker 3: you know, frazzled lifestyle. That the table has just come
Speaker 3: to serve as a talisman and a reminder that there's more,
Speaker 3: you know that we meet, You know that there are
Speaker 3: such you know, beauty and richness when you slow down,
Speaker 3: you know, and unplug and just enjoy really the simplicity of.
Speaker 1: Of you know, connecting hard to heart. Yeah, of loving
Speaker 1: people in a very real way. Yes, I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: I appreciate your your story. I appreciate that you're helping
Speaker 1: people across the country to come out to the front yard,
Speaker 1: come out to the front porch and love with all
Speaker 1: their heart. You keep doing that in your book and
Speaker 1: your travels and you're speaking Christen, I'll keep doing it
Speaker 1: on the radio.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you so much, Thank.
Speaker 2: You, God bless you.
Speaker 3: Thanks by Delilah
Speaker 2: Hotewn and Ers Mad with you, Lilan