The Presence Project Podcast

Join Summer Gross and Christy Purifoy as they explore the profound role of beauty in spiritual life, placemaking, and community. Discover how cultivating beauty can nourish the soul, foster resilience, and reflect God's redemptive love.
Read the transcript on substack HERE
Find out how to join us at Maplehurst at summerjoygross.com/long-table-retreat
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction and the theme of beauty in summer
00:28 The reflection of divine beauty in everyday life
01:23 Christy Purifoy's journey into placemaking and beauty
02:02 Beauty as a priestly calling and creative expression
04:26 The significance of Maplehurst and place-based beauty
06:13 The story of finding Maplehurst and dreaming new dreams
08:23 The power of rootedness and cultivating beauty
09:19 The home as a character and sanctuary
10:21 Walking into Christy Purifoy's soul through her home
12:00 The smallness of our dreams and God's larger plan
13:17 Creating hospitality from the depths of the soul
14:43 Beauty as a hospital for souls
16:33 Music and beauty as sources of hope in hospitals
17:19 Beauty during difficult seasons and emotional nourishment
18:43 Balancing practicality and extravagance in beauty
19:42 The gift of retreat and divine rest
21:03 The importance of receiving divine gifts
22:28 The theology of beauty and delight in creation
27:11 Beauty as a reflection of heaven and restoration
36:30 Hope and resilience through beauty amidst global suffering
38:33 The joy of summer fruits and local abundance
42:26 The practice of evening poetry and emotional play
44:44 Transforming emotions into poetry for spiritual insight
45:13 The value of honest expression and naming feelings
45:27 Upcoming retreat at Maplehurst and invitation to join
46:20 Closing thoughts and gratitude for shared beauty

Many insecure avoidants have a hard time placing their fingers on their emotions. They feel more comfortable learning. They feel more comfortable conquering. It allows them to keep their emotions at a distance.
But, when they sense a call to open up their inner life to God or they hit a wall and need greater emotional resources, I often invite them to read a Psalm a day, noticing the emotions that are being prayed. Then, I invite them to notice what emotions are coming up from within them.
So friends, you're in for a treat. Leslie Leyland Fields, a writer and self-professed insecure avoidant shares the practice from the Psalms that taught her how to get out of her head and develop a heartfelt intimacy with God. She shares about it in her book, Nearing the Far God, but also in this conversation at the Presence Project Podcast.
We'd LOVE to have you join us in person at The Long Table Retreat. Click HERE for more information.

Uncomplicating the Ignatian Examen & Reflecting w/ God as a Child
If we are anxious or avoidantly attached, often as we move toward prayer, we sift and sort our stories ourselves, wondering which ones to tell God.
We weigh our story and wonder if it is worthy.
Will it hold his attention? Does it matter? Is it angsty or whiny?
Am I showing enough faith or worship?
If we grew up with an experience of impatience from our caregiver, we begin to believe that our story will not be treasured, that it's better not to try.
That it needs to be weighty or witty or already metabolized before it is worth their time. So we begin to minimize the mess, believing we need to clean ourselves up before we come into His presence. Or maybe we think our story has to be maximized, over-spiritualized to be worthy of notice.

Jesus reminds us to "come as a child" and that He has "all the time in the world" to hold our story. He may be omniscient, but, as a perfect caregiver, He still desires to hear every angle of our joy or pain through our perspective sifting and sorting it with us.
Show Notes:
Transcript and notes on Summer's new Substack here
Beginner's Guide to the Examen
Nightly Guide to the Examen: 7 ½ minute recording
Creative Right-brained Examen with Sarah Herring
Free Daily examen workbook page
Andrew Huberman's podcast: Making and Breaking Habits

I loved reading chapter 1 of The Emmanuel Promise for you. You can watch me read it to you over at YouTube HERE.
PRE-ORDER The Emmanuel Promise: Discover the Security of a Life Held by God wherever you find your books.
$11.39 and free shipping at Baker Publishing's own site HERE. At this price, you can be generous with your whole book group.
Pre-Order on Amazon here.
Then, get your pre-order gifts HERE, including 2 private podcasts.

This episode is DAY 1 of a private 7-Day podcast devotional called "Welcome Home," a gift for anyone who pre-orders The Emmanuel Promise. 
Pre-order from Baker Publishing for $11.39 and free shipping here!
Pre-order from Amazon here
After pre-ordering, get your gifts and join the launch team here.
The Emmanuel Promise is an invitation to set down shame and recognize that your attachment story, your earliest relationship with your caregiver, may be what's obstructing your relationship with God. Your caregivers were human. Limited. Living with their own broken and imperfect story. God's love is lavish. He's . Compassionate. Perfect. But, since our neural pathways for relationships were created in those first three years, our brains have to be rewired to Perfect Love.