Hey there -- things picked up this summer and I've been working 7 days a week, or traveling away from home. The business aspects of this wild idea of Placecraft are taking off, sometimes running way ahead of me! It has been, at times, overwhelming. Overall, I'm glad about it. I've got a wonderful feeling about winter, sing-ins and craft-ins  with friends, family, and community already bringing us together this autumn. But is is autumn yet? Today it is October 22 and I took off all my sweater layers, it's sunny and hot. Our draught year continues. 

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Here's some summer photo updates, for a taste of all the clay:

The first set of photos is from a small earthen floor installation just up the mountain from Discovery Bay. This floor cracked a lot and was a good learning experience for me, both because I had to fix the cracking problem, and also because it was the first project I've been the lead builder on in the Jefferson County area. I'm realizing, in a way, this project kicked off my busy summer of mud, and a growth spurt in the business. 

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The next set of photos is from the First Annual Port Townsend Village Building Convergence.

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​Can't-stop-us, the weekend after the Port Townsend Village Building Convergence was completed, we jumped right into Cob-N-Straw building series on Marrowstone Island (my new home!). We made two cob walls, two straw-clay walls, and finished the building with an interior clay plaster and exterior lime plaster. The final coat of exterior lime plaster will go on in the spring, after the first coat has has plenty of time to cure. I feel so proud of all of us. Some people came and went only for an hour, others stayed every single work party weekend. Nearly forty different people worked on this wonderful little house, including a few handfuls of kids. This place is full of joy and song. Thank you all so much!

This is the first project in which I took on a workshop leader role as well as lead builder. I feel great about it, and the feedback has been so wonderful as to be quite humbling. I feel thankful for all of my guidance in teaching, particularly from Mark Lakeman of Communitecture, Eva Edleson of FireSpeaking, and Joseph Becker of Ion EcoBuilding. They have grown me so much in the areas of teaching newcomers and coordinating work sites. I learned much of what I know thru years of work parties and I'm glad to be able to share what I have learned and continue to pass on the wisdom of these traditional building technologies. I see no end it to in any time soon.

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​First heavy rain of the season (and still the only heavy rain of the season) happened the day we finished the Hugelkultur at Song House Sanctuary. Great to see plants go into the new soil! 

Below are photos of finished interior clay plaster for a client building a house out of train shipping containers outside of Port Townsend. Very beautiful finish work!! It is a treasure to work here. Next month, we start building interior cob walls to enclose kitchen space, and pour a small earthen floor.

Warm Muddy Walls - work parties for interior clay plaster on a Faswall house built outside Quilcene, WA.  The Yeakel and Gunn families have been coming out to get muddy together and finish their house. Nice to work with folks who have known each other for so long in such a beautiful place. Thanks to all of you! The Yeakel family has an abundance of horse manure, so this plaster is very manure-rich, composing of roughly 25% of the plaster body. Manure has excellent fine fibers and the active enzymes in the poop help to create a stronger, harder, more durable, and water resistant plaster (chemistry has a field of study on these kinds of "biopolymers"). So far, we are thrilled with the results. 

I continue to build Masonry Heaters with Jason Temple thru TempleFire and this house features a masonry heater built by us in the spring of 2015. It's fun to come back and finish the walls in the house we built this heater for. Jason and I are currently working on a large Russian double bell heater on Bainbridge Island, and you can watch the progress of that stove -- and others -- on TempleFire's Facebook Page.

Personal update in the land of Making Things: 
2015 is my 5th year at Saskatoon Circle - a traditional living skills gathering outside of Twisp, WA. Under the guidance of Ira Christian, five of us made gourd ukeleles, starting from a cherry stick, a gourd, a deer hide, and a goat hide. Five days of carving, drum strapping, nylon stringing, and collecting ponderosa pine pitch, deer poo, and charcol for the pitch glue -- we made fetless instruments that give off a rounded and rich tone. The curved sound holes on the side of the gourd were carved by firelight during the total lunar eclipse... & I was done carving by the time the moon was full and bright again. I love the way this little uke sounds. It's the first stringed instrument I've ever had and I'm enjoying playing it every day!

​With Love & Mud & Music, 
​~ Hannah

Writing this was prompted by an e-mail exchange about "Sustainability" that left me with a nag, like a sticker stuck in my sock. I want to outline a few reasons why I see that sometimes focusing on what we can do as individuals to be "sustainable" is over-emphasized to a point that we forget what it will look like on a larger scale to live in a culture that is truly thriving. 

For example, on the level of individual choice concerning water usage, hot topics of division tend to be (1) bottled water / access to potable water (2) domestic water use and (3) outdoor. Where do you focus your attention? Outside the issues surrounding whether "outdoor" means you're tending a garden or lawn, let's consider the other two. If you commit to reducing your shower time, saving an average of 2.5 gallons per minute (with a low-flow shower head), in 10 minutes, that's about 30 gallons of water. Water-bottling facilities waste thousands of gallons of water per day in the manufacturing process, not to mention nearly 20 million barrels of oil per year, claim horrible working conditions, a trail of pollution behind them, and a trash and transportation nightmare in front of them. So the choice of reducing your shower time and not buying bottled water are not choices that have equal impact. 

The point of this example is some choices have greater significance because they have more inherent leverage. 

There are many hidden aspects of "sustainability" that often do not get talked about... for example, with water bottling facilities, what else are we missing out on, culturally, by the factory's existence? Are there even bigger leverage points that we are missing because we are focused on a view that is too narrow in time? 

We have a cultural habit on wanting to consider the most "efficient" way for things to be. Especially in the "sustainability" movement, we see an obsession with efficiency. How do we consume less energy? Of course it's an important question, yet it is not usually coupled with actually changing our lifestyle. It thinks about systems strictly from an economic kind of lens of energy inputs and outputs without remembering the importance of our Spiritual Renewal. Okay, now we're using less energy, we're using less water, etc, but are we really living our life purpose? Conversely, there are those who have tuned into the value of healing and self-care, and may spend a bunch of money on personal growth retreats, work with alternative medicine practitioners, or take extended trips in the wilderness, but there is little regard for integrating these reconnecting practices into the landscape of every-day life and sharing their gift with the immediate community. To begin the conversation about "sustainability", at the very least we need these two things - efficient energy systems and spiritual renewal - to merge.

Yet we have a cultural habit of separation. We say "wilderness and spirituality" is over here, and "water bottle factories" are over here. We might say we need to make water bottle factories less toxic, more efficient, and still distribute clean water, and contribute to the economy. We might say we need to preserve the natural environment and let the wildness be completely untouched. In fact, neither of these scenarios are an effective answer on their own. 

For a week in 2013, I stayed at a Sufi Community several miles out of town from Silver City, New Mexico called "The Voice of the Turtle". It was not until three days into my visit that I met the creek for the first time because there had not yet been a reason I needed to go to the water. I loved the creek, when I went. It was beautiful, and being with it filled me with peace and joy. The diversity of experience, from being up on the hill, or down in the garden, viewing the trees, or then visiting the creek - was enriching. Why had I not been there yet? On one hand, it was convenient to have a pump that brought the water up to the kitchen, and on the other hand, I experienced directly how convenience was replacing communion. If there was no pump, we would need to visit the creek every day in order to bring the water we needed to the kitchen. The kitchen would probably be oriented in a location that was more receptive to a natural flow of water thru the landscape. Technology had replaced the wisdom of nestling into a relationship with Place. 

My mentor Mia Van Meter adds, from Ram Dass, [Sustainability is...] "not simply to rebuild the land, but to be rebuilt by the land, by the work itself."

Wendall Berry says, “We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it.” 

These are lovely sentiments, and yet, they are still only ideas. They're only ideas when it exists as a thought in our mind, 1-dimensionally.
 
In this culture, we've become hyper-focused in the realm of 1-dimensional ideas. 
"We can't change the world"
"Water bottles are harmful"
"We can heal ourselves"
"I can make a clay pot"
"We can build a bench in our neighborhood"  

At best, we share our ideas with other people, and they become 2-dimensional. In conversation, suddenly there's another perspective. In words or pictures, it can be communicated and shared. 

It is when things take 3-dimension form that we are starting to fulfill our capacity as adults living on this marvelous planet. When we actually build a bench in our neighborhood, we have a physical, cellular feeling of what it is like to change the world. When we create rain gardens or water catchment systems, we learn more from our new relationship with water. When we make a clay pot, we know our actions have form. 

When objects exist and start to take on memory, we begin to see how 4+more dimensions unfold. This is where Placemaking begins to shine. A bench exists, and hundreds of people may use it, but not all at the same time. The bench experiences rain and sun and develops its own character. And if - during the "2-dimensional" stage of the process - many people have input as to what it should look like, where it should go, and so on, then even before a bench exists 3-dimensionally, it has Love imbedded into it that comes at it from many directions. Placemaking is, at its highest expression, a multi-dimensional process that encourages multi-dimensional interaction in this way. Not just a 1-dimensional way of having personal ideas, or even only a 3-dimensional way of building something, but many many dimensions, when invested with memory and meaning. 

The same is true for people. We are not just 1-dimensional brains moving our ideas from one meeting to the next. We are even more than our 3-dimension physical bodies. We are the action of energy, emotion, memory, and Love. When we interact with the physical world, EVERY SINGLE TIME, we interact with it as multi-dimensional beings. No matter how great our 1-dimensional ideas are, maturity of our own unique relationship with spirit develops when we move beyond the vision. 

I believe there's a country western song by Toby Keith that may put it more simply: "A little less talk, and a lot more action." You may or may not want that one stuck in your head. 

Move beyond "sustainability". When we imagine a new civilization, we must be conscious of how our every action is contributing to the collective potential for a multi-dimensional experience. This has very practical implications for simple things like whether or not to buy bottled water. Consciously and honestly looking at everything that goes into bottled water - before and after you use it - from a multi-dimensional perspective would make the decisions obvious. But it should always be a decision you make for yourself from your own consciousness, not just because someone told you should do it because it's the "green" thing to do. Your development of consciousness is the greatest gift to the "sustainability" movement, because it was the movement away from consciousness and love that got us into this mess. The physics of consciousness is something that exists without us, but all have access to it, and not just human beings. And I'll betcha with certainty, at the top of this economic chain of madness, is a bunch of hurting hearts - not measurable by their contributions to the national GDP - and every one of those hearts feels the effects of this culture of closure. 

Choices that influence our experience of a world in a multi-dimensional way - in a way that is meaningful to us in our every-day landscape - have incredible power. I think it is more important to work with your neighbors to build something together in the place where you live than it is to keep track of your individual water usage - or even to stop buying bottled water - because of this necessity to open hearts again. Because Placemaking projects are public projects that touch the essences of who we are as we live, rich or poor alike, within the physical world we are a part of.  

It's more important to keep change close to home because all conversation of "sustainability" is within the context of that physical world!  And the reason we have to even consider the implications of our individual impact is because we have individuated ourselves. Yet we are not so individual, physically or spiritually. We are of the landscape, and we are of each other. Not just "each other" the people in our comfortable friend group. Not just the "landscape" of pristine wilderness. Not just the "spirit" in sacred space. Every person we interact with. Every square inch of our neighborhood. Every moment of God.

It was weaving baskets that taught me I couldn't control. It was growing food that taught me abundance. It was building that taught me manifestation. I currently live in a cabin that isn't plumbed, and a 5 gallon tank of water above my sink teaches me limits, about every day and a half, when I have to fill it again. 

The beautiful thing about it is this: if you try to build a bench with wood, it lets you do it even if you are not completely aware of every molecule that makes up that wood and its history. You are allowed to use the wood without complete consciousness toward it. The physical world is absolutely surrounding us with grace and truth in this way. It is more perfect than we can fathom, although modern science is starting to catch up on what we have always known about nature's complexities. This grace that surrounds us in the physical world is consciousness. It teaches us. And we will only learn more by interacting with it directly. Why else would we bother to incarnate? We see what we do to the physical world as a mirror image of how we treat ourselves. We pollute, subvert, and dam water. Water is our emotions, -- on a cultural level -- we know we bottle them up, try to change them, and pollute their integrity. Air is our thinking mind and it's full of noise, full of the clatter of machinery, and full of the business of distracted thought. 

We know when we do healing work, it ripples out to the rest of the cosmos. We know that when we do simple physical tasks, it keeps energy flowing. Let's put these ideas together more often by aligning our conscious desire for healing with practical actions that may otherwise seem impossible because of our social fears. If all of this is way too esoteric for you, start with the dishes. Something about dishes is deeply sacred, (I have a lot of ideas about this task)... but what's it about for you? A pile of neglect? A sparkling phobia of germs?

It is this very physical world that we ignore when we think only in 1-dimensional ideas about what is right and what is wrong for "the environment" - forgetting that it is "the environment" that surrounds every square inch of the inside of our lungs and relentlessly demonstrates the miracle of life thru every "weed" in the cracks of concrete. We need to move beyond 1-dimesional ideas and into multi-dimensional experiences. We need to enhance the meaning and memory we give to our every-day landscape. The metaphor is completely unique to our personal perspective. 

So, what can YOU do differently? BE COURAGEOUS. "Courageous" comes from the root "cour" meaning, "heart" - to live from the Heart. No matter where people fall on the political spectrum, or whatever, everyone senses the world could be better right now. How can it be better? There is no right answer. None. The right answer should be startling different to every location on a hyper-local level. How does the landscape of your neighborhood capture light and water? Where are the wildlife corridors? Who has space for tool storage? What are the practical boundaries for personal space and collective space? Where are the places for public interaction? How much land would it take to feed everyone on your block? And on what kind of diet? Is there road space that could better be used for something else? Are there bigger social blockages that prevent safe places to sit and observe nature? What does your neighborhood need? 

We have replaced culture for consumerism, and become individual instead of collective. The collective includes the physical world of your immediate environment. Not the disaster in a place you never visit. Not the turmoil in a country you've never been to. YOUR physical world. To send prayers is helpful. To want to effect change elsewhere is violent. It is only another branch of consumerism. Consuming the drama, perpetuating distance. There is inherent violence associated with trying to solve other people's problems and putting the solutions away from the place where you live, outside yourself, and the people directly involved in your immediate life. A new civilization means restoring the fabric of healthy relationships. In order to do so, we need to remember that we do not need corporations to "solve" our problems thru false convenience - for we know there is not really convenience when we consider all the harm that is done behind the scenes. 

We instead must face a world of relating with real people that have skills and resources, as well as personalities that will challenge us - and the fact that our personalities might challenge other people!! 

In any case, we need to let our direct actions (not just our ideas) reflect our understanding of how to change the world.

Then, change the world. The physical world. Where you live. To reflect your values, your freedom. The world is changeable. Look at a clay pot and tell me it's not changeable.

For those interested in geeking out about the difference between two types of leadership: the "charismatic leader" and "community as leader". 

Most projects that come to be in our culture tend to be driven by "charismatic leaders" through whom all decisions ultimately get funneled through. They provide inspiration for devotion to the project, much support, and extra energy. Egalitarian community leadership implies that the community as a whole makes decisions among each other -- NOT necessarily by consensus -- but by constant informal communication among the most relevant people regarding that specific question and considerations, that lead to decisions and actions. Communities with charismatic leaders can still be healthy communities, and sometimes they even survive the death of that leader - they change a lot in the process, but they persist. Strong community projects can happen in either scenario; it's simply good to be aware of the nuances.

An example for egalitarian community leadership: Means of Production garden in BC. 

Means of Production is a continuously changing creative space. Depending on who is putting energy into the garden for a season, the garden reflects the changes. Sometimes it is weavers. Sometimes instrument makers. Sometimes herbalists. The nature of it is truly wild to the community and its ever-evolving self-organization. Certain people or groups may invest in it for awhile and therefore care about how their part of the project is effected by others, and many people co-habitate and use various parts of the garden. Some people put energy into planting perennials and these plants grow and benefit everyone that uses the space in the future. "Grow Art" organization is the most persistent organizer around the space, offering workshops and tending perennial tasks. 

Because of the freedom of this site, its gift has been available to many people that would not perhaps have had access to a garden, or a reason to interact with other strangers, or a place that felt welcome for them to invest creative energy. 

'The public' can use and care for this space any time, any day, and becomes a focal point for the entire community to care for and interact with.

There is no boss. There is no set person that makes final decisions about what can and can't happen. The land and the people work together with no additional oversight. The garden simply absorbs and holds the energy of the current group involved. The long-term vision? A place for people to regard as a resource for materials and relationships. Wow. As simple as that is, it is accomplishing it with more integrity than any other project I have seen implemented in a city setting. 

An example for charismatic leadership: Planet Repair Institute in Portland. 

Planet Repair is exemplary in the world of community projects. The group at this urban homestead mostly makes decisions by consensus, but major changes to the land ultimately come down to the opinion of the owner, who has lived there the longest and will probably stay there forever. 

Planet Repair a great example of how this kind of "charismatic leadership" system works very well. It makes good sense that someone invested in this specific place has slightly more say. In this case, the entire community benefits deeply from their dedication as they involve other people in the decision making process, are considerate of new ideas, and provide educational opportunities far beyond even their immediate community when it comes to major improvements to the place. This house was the reason straw-clay insulation was legalized in Oregon and in the process of various building projects on the land, hundreds of people were able to learn hands-on natural building and permaculture techniques. An annual Urban Permaculture Design Class is taught here, with an added emphasis on neighborhood transformation and community organizing. Plus the neighbors can take any classes offered at Planet Repair for free. 

'The public' is generally most welcome only during specific events or workshops. 

It is surly worth noting, too, that resiliency in the community would be tested if the leadership at Planet Repair were to suddenly die or if his focus attention were called to another project. It is already true that if the group living there is not prepared to host guests that they are not openly welcome. Although many people love this place, there is a sense of its ownership -- and it's not "community ownership".

The first paragraph of the forward to "The Facilitator's Guide To Participatory Decision Making" is written by Michael Doyle saying, "I see group facilitation as a whole constellation of ingredients: a deep belief in the wisdom and creativity of people; a search for synergy and overlapping goals; the ability to listen openly and actively  a working knowledge of group dynamics; a deep belief in the inherent power of the group and teams; a respect for individuals and their points of view; patience and a high tolerance for ambiguity to let a decision evil and gel; strong interpersonal and collaborative problem-solving skills; an understanding of thinking processes; and a flexible versus a lock-step approach to resolving issues and making decisions." 

When it comes down to it, the primary concern in community projects is true inclusion. And what does that look like? The world of facilitation and leadership is literally filled with hundreds of books, everything from dealing with complexities in race, class, and empowerment to simple ice breakers. 

Personal Note: 

While it is good to be aware of resources for organizing community projects, the best resource of all is experience. The first time I was reading "Building Power Community Organizations" by Michael Jacoby Brown, it was the winter after I left Portland and organizing the Village Building Convergence, and I had retracted from that world completely for a time. I had an impending sense of impossibility sinking in me as I read the chapter on organizing in your neighborhood for local action. I thought without words, "how could anyone ever be brave enough to do this?" The more that thought became clear, I realized how funny this scene was. Less than eight months previous I had been Placemaking Coordinator, supporting more than 40 sites to do this very thing! 

Why did I feel it was so impossible?

I have a theory: because it was written in a book by someone else. 

While books can be inspiring, empowering, helpful in guiding us in many ways... there is a sense of detachment from reality with a book, as well. So much of the process for community organizing projects comes more naturally to us than we realize. When we see the steps laid out on paper, they seem intimidating. When I ask my students what it feels like to imagine knocking on their neighbor's door, every time it is a conversation about fear. Once neighbors begin working together, it feels startlingly more natural that expected, even if it is awkward at first. 


And every project will run into difficulties, uncomfortable places, and hard decisions. Sometimes that's met with the reaction:

Last night, we sang in the army bunkers, a favourite spot for sound in Port Townsend. The echo of old cement walls, hallways, and passages are gloriously resonant, and at first we are two, then three, and four, sharing harmony and healing words. 

A few songs in, we are joined by a 15 year old fellow, a self proclaimed fan of 'rhythm and blues and muscle cars', who originally stopped us asking if we'd seen a few 'punk ass kids' around he'd been looking for with a heavy duty flashlight. He and his old derby hat sang right with us and couldn't resist after every song expressing how calming and beautiful it was. 

Then, as people walked by wondering what the singing was about, we'd wave and welcome them in. We were joined by two more young guys, then three more young guys, a group of three young girls, and soon we were a group in total of about twenty, singing simple songs together in the army bunkers. 

They were all middle-and-high-schoolers and -- though some of them sometimes would look sideways at each other, wondering if what they were all doing was socially acceptable, or kept themselves composed in a way that said "this is a little crazy" -- everyone sang, and smiled. And we sang! Soulfully, song after song, getting into more complicated rounds, four part harmonies.  The very words we sang, "If you can walk, you can dance. If you can talk, you can sing," an affirmation to the magic of our insta-choir. 

Gretchen Sleicher turns to me as everyone is leaving and says, "You know what that says to me? EVERYONE can sing and wants to sing." We've seen the number of intentional singing programs in and out of schools increases as public funding for the arts decreases. Somehow, in the collapse of everything, resurgence is happening consciously, and perhaps everything -- from art programs to villages -- needed to die in order to bring our deepest needs for things that are simple and important to existence now with intention. 

The musical vibration of song is a deeply primal Placemaking tool. At once, we are in a cement room surrounded by gun batteries, and at once when we are leaving one young man says, "Now these will never be scary." Our voices bring a change to the space that is in one state, and then is transformed. I have felt in every place where I have sang, some indescribable energetic shift in the universe that began in resonance from a musical tone. Laurence Cole often says, "Human Being are Singing Things," and it is well believed we have been singing long before there was language. I feel this remembered by the Earth, and Everything listens deeper to each other with the singing of Human Beings, just as the quiver of aspen leaves and the trickle of a creek.

Some Buddhist monks undergo an initiation of seven years of isolation in a cave, removed from society and much of the natural world, so that when they emerge they are so touched by the beauty of the physical world that they remain in a state of bliss for the rest of their life. After building at Laurence & Deanna's house last week, we went to the beach for sunset and as we remembered this, we thought with so many millions of people confined to office cubicles and factory sweat shops, we've got an entire culture of enlightened bliss right on the edge! The initiation of 'the information age' will free itself into grief, and creativity, and Love deeper than we have possibly known as a species. We saw a glimpse of this with the teenagers who joined us, many of whom expressed they've never done anything like that before, and who sang proudly together.

I climb to the top of the bunkers to watch the sunset. I'm singing with just myself, still processing the magic that has just occurred with the teenagers and us below. An enormous cannon used to shoot from below where I stand, out into the ocean where I see the golden-rose light outlining the San Juan islands, Victoria, BC, turning the sea into liquid Love. Last night, a friend and I ate dinner at sunset on the other side of the water, Port Townsend looking like a speck of civilization, sailboat harbors, gushing smoke from the paper mill... a tiny cluster of activity only a thumbprint on the base Olympic Mountains, blue and snowy, behind their proud evergreen foothills. What once was war, is now watched over in relative peace, and I feel this as a prayer for peace everywhere. I stand on the place we looked out to yesterday, the cascade mountains are strong at my back and blushing pink and I can't help but know I live in one of the the most beautiful place on Earth in this moment. 

Sunlight streams through a fine filter of beauty, through tall grasses, butterfly wings, blooming wildflowers, and fantastic cloud forms, then touching the ground. This Place is changed this with our presence and our song. I feel the words of Alexa Sunshine Rose deep in every molecule of my body:

We are created by sound, we are created by the song of the universe.

Let's break that down: 

1. Placemaking
Making a place. A place is a physical location invested with value and meaning. People care about it and have memories associated with it. Making - creating, having directly designed and implemented aspects associated with the place (for example, building a bench or planting a garden). 

Placemaking distinctly implies that projects are created in the places where people live, by the people who live there. A history of Placemaking from The City Repair Project's perspective in Portland: here. 

2. Process
There is no 'end'. Once a project is completed, there is clean up, and at sunrise the next day it is already changing. The paint is wearing, the plants are growing, the wood is expanding and contracting. Placemaking implies some level of maintenance and thus a cyclical celebration of clean up, repair, revision, improvement, expansion, simplification, and adjustment. The projects evolve as members of the community come and go, the level of involvement waxes and wanes depending on the season, and over time the history of the Place rests in so many people's personal memories it takes on a life of its own, impacting each person interacting with it in a unique way.

3. Multi-layered 
Part of why I am passionate about this work is this very aspect of multi-layered... Actively since 2008, new dimensions of what "Placemaking" means unfold for me... It feels strange to separate them into categories given they are all different expressions of the same work, but while this is by no means representing all possibilities for understanding its application, we can begin to see the many ways this concept is at work. 

Transforming neighborhoods? Completing a project for an intentional community? Forming a rural tool-sharing network? Overall, these processes are fun and the results are usually quite beautiful. At its simplest, Placemaking is just about getting to know the people around you and trying something together.
 
Physical - 
Considering the ecological implications of most of our lives being played out so far from our homes and most of our resources coming from very far away, Placemaking brings our daily needs closer to home. Even a 1 day block party gathers neighbors together to not drive, not consume, but instead enjoy the simplicity of staying, and security in getting to know the people who live near. Physical projects create totems of these relationships formed, and bring us ever closer to "Walkable Neighborhoods". 

Social - 
In the United States and other 'developed' nations, cultural isolation is of serious concern for the mental health of the general population, and the ability for local governances to be effective by actually having an opportunity to talk to one another. When people thoughtfully interact with their government, and government acts on a local level, appropriate decisions can be made for the total health of the community. 

Asset maps and neighborhood networks build resilient communities that learn how to work with each other for daily needs as well as effectively respond and prepare for emergencies. 

Emotional - 
When we go to places where we have good memories, we have good feelings, and good feelings reduce our stress, regulate our heartbeat, and balance our emotions. 

As human beings, we like to put our stamp on the environment, and when we do it in a way that is harmonious with nature, it makes us feel relaxed, and the project better suits the surroundings. In the end, it is less 'work', and more time for enjoying the process. 

Spiritual - 
Spiritual revival of the land is taking place. Placemaking projects say, "Hey! We're paying attention to this land, we're doing things that we love, and we're trying to heal this place." It invites the Spirit of the Place back if it has ever left, and it strengthens the spirit present and gives it expression through the community action. One could also think of it as the 'good feeling' people get when they come there. 

Personal - 
We create a personal "place" in our Hearts by asking ourselves what part of this work really calls to us? Are we the artist, the organizer, the bookkeeper, the builder, the work party cookie baker, the behind-the-scenes support, the historian, the charismatic spokesperson, or the kid's clubhouse extraordinaire? There are many roles that have a chance to be honored in collaborative projects and it is an opportunity worth embellishing. 

Global - 
World Peace starts at home. 

"Typically other people’s problems seem simpler, uncomplicated and easier to solve than those of one’s own society... in simple terms, the lack of knowledge of other cultures makes them easier to help." ~ Rafia Zakaria

When we do Placemaking Projects, we are transforming our immediate community for the benefit of all, developing a hyper-local culture we can be proud to come from. Many Placemaking projects are accomplished with a group of people who six months previously did not even know each others' names. We put aside our judgements and fears in order to work together from a basis of what we have in common, and the values that we share. The ability for us to practice this small level of compassion and collaboration radiates out in many realms - the simplest being our direct relationships - where we know our actions are making a difference because we can see, sense, and feel them changing in a positive way. 




When we learn to meet our direct needs in the places where we live, we come from a Generative Place of genuine peace and creative action. I'm sure if you were to consider the essence of Placemaking for yourself, you would find you are already doing it in your own life in some way. Savor the reality of living in a world that is functional, beautiful, and healthy, which you can amplify in your own way at any time. In the singing words of Frances Michaelson, "The world is as beautiful now as it every will be, there is nothing more to wait for."