The creative force behind Blackberry Farm, Tennessee’s award-winning farm-to-table resort, reveals how she found herself only after losing everything in this powerful memoir of resilience. “I couldn’t put down this wise, honest, beautifully written story.”—Shauna Niequist, New York Times bestselling author of Present Over Perfect and Bread & WineBorn with the gift of hospitality, Kreis Beall … Wine
Born with the gift of hospitality, Kreis Beall helped create one of the nation’s most renowned resort destinations, Blackberry Farm, in Tennessee’s Smoky Mountain foothills. For decades, she was a fixture in the travel and entertaining world and frequently appeared in the pages of popular home and design magazines. But at the pinnacle of her success, Kreis faced a series of challenges that reframed her life, including a brain injury that permanently impaired her hearing and the conclusion of her thirty-six-year marriage to her best friend and business partner, Sandy Beall.
Alone and uncertain as her world shifts and marriage ends, Kreis begins a new journey to find her faith and find God. After spending years on her beautiful exterior life and work, she begins the hardest undertaking of all: reclaiming and redesigning her interior life and soul.
Kreis retreats to Blackberry Farm, moving into an unassuming, 300-square-foot shed with peeling paint on the exterior walls, “where I met myself for the first time.” She examines what it takes to redefine life after deep loss and acknowledges, for the first time, often unbearable truths that existed beneath the beauty she had created.
By turns fiercely honest, heartbreaking, and warm, Kreis Beall’s story will resonate with anyone who can benefit from her discovery that “All it takes is all you’ve got. And it is worth it.”
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Great Blue Hills of God by Kreis Beall is an excellent memoir that brought me to tears (in a good way) as I journeyed with Kreis herself as she described her own life up until current day.
I have to admit I had never heard of Blackberry Farm in Tennessee before reading this book. Since, I have visited the website several times and have learned so much about the heart and soul that was placed into what she calls “her third child”.
I was fascinated to learn about her life, how the area was conceived, created, and come to be the stunning resort it is today.
What I feel is the most memorable aspect of this book is hearing Kreis’s life story and her path to finding herself, her family, her purpose, and her relationship with God. I cheered for her as I read about her accomplishments and I cried with her as I read about some of the tragic happenings in her life. I am amazed and in awe of her ability to fight for her recovery and her family. For the way she was able to step back and find God and create a wonderful and lasting relationship with Him, and the way that her faith grew and flourished,like her beautiful roses, helping her cope with her losses and find her path and purpose. I am inspired and admire her passion, love, tenacity, and beautiful soul.
I am so thankful that I have been able to meet Kreis through her words, and her search for love, acceptance, purpose, family, and God mirrors us all in one way or another. I think we can all identify with her journey and I can only hope that she finds all that she needs and deserves.
My family and I are now planning a trip to stay and experience the Blackberry Farm oasis this fall. I can’t wait!
Thank you Kreis for helping us all realize we are not alone in our daily lives and in our search for forgiveness and meaning. I am glad I got to experience this with you and I hope others will do the same.
Stunning. 5/5 stars
My ex husbands family is from the East Tennessee area and we used to spend a lot of time in the Smokies. I always knew of Blackberry, had been by a few times, but never stayed (now I can’t afford to)! 😉 I enjoyed reading Kreis Beall’s story and that of her family. She lived in many areas I’ve visited and frequented, which made it all the more interesting. It shows that sadness and tragedy have no preference on the wealthy vs the not so wealthy. It hits most of us at one point or more in life. I enjoyed reading how Ms Beall’s health brought her to focus on what was missing in her life and finding her faith and real joy in more simple things. Highly recommend this book, especially to those in our area who would enjoy knowing more about the Blackberry history.