Placemaking Like a Child
Hello Friends! So glad to meet you here for just a moment to share an image and thought inspired by my placemaking child.
“Lucy, what are you doing over there?” I ask.
“Just looking around,” she responds.
Lucy is my placemaking child. Though only two, Lucy creates special spaces. She lays on the floor with her head on a pillow, blanket over her body, and hands busy with a book. She sits on a step with a stuffed animal or two and something comfy to cover them all. She pops an umbrella and lays under it to “just look around.”
What spaces do you create and why? How are you a placemaker?
Sometimes, we adults want to create spaces for pure aesthetics or for what others will think of the space.
I love Lucy’s spaces because, on the contrary, they are simple and temporary. The spaces she makes serve a purpose—a moment to rest with a book, to cuddle with a stuffy, to simply “look around”—but she is also detached from them.
What a lovely thing for us adults to consider—How can we create spaces and also remain detached enough that the spaces do not become more important than the higher good they are meant to serve? For example, how can we make spaces that foster particular goods like rest, attentive work, creativity, play, or community? How do our spaces welcome God and others?
It is a good and holy thing to care about the spaces we make. For, we are made in the image of the Placemaker. Recall Jesus’ words, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?” (John 14:1-2)
Peace be with you as you placemake this week!