The World Needs Makers: Live with Intention

A few years back, my husband and I started a tradition of making memories with one grandchild at a time. For a full week. This past week was eleven-year-old Lydia’s turn.

Lydia and I drove south into California where we hugged a redwood tree, marveled at the crashing Pacific waves, spotted elk, and eventually landed on an organic beef ranch owned by extended family in a cute little Victorian village called Ferndale.

Lydia’s favorite memories of that place? Petting horses. Naming chickens. Riding an all-terrain utility vehicle to “help” feed the cows. Making a gingerbread house. Sleeping in a tent in the living room with cousins. And stealing her great-uncle’s easy chair when he made the mistake of getting up.

Back in central Oregon, we saw Little Women at the theater, and had pancakes for dinner, and I taught her how to sew hair scrunchies—which, apparently you wear on your wrist and not actually in your hair (it’s a middle-school girl thing). Oh, and we sampled the merchandise at Ida’s Cupcake Cafe.

At one point, Lydia asked, “Of all the things we did, what was your favorite?”

“Hmmm,” I thought. “If I had to narrow it down, it would be our road trip conversations. And seeing you enjoy an activity I enjoy.”

Yep. Snow-shoeing.

We schlepped through powder and posed with snowmen and recorded video to send to her mom. And much laughter rang out across the snow.

It was Nanea Hoffman who said:

Go make stuff today. Make coffee. Make a ruckus. Make a difference. Make a memory. Make time for someone or something you love. The world needs makers.

I made time for one-on-one fun with a granddaughter for a week.

We made some epic memories in northern California and central Oregon.

And I suspect this time together made a difference in her life — because I am one more adult who loves her and is partnering with her parents in nurturing her physically, mentally/emotionally, and spiritually.

Makers are opportunity seekers.

• Makers make new friends.
• Makers make a place in their homes for a foster or adoptive child.
• Makers make dinner for the family that moved in down the street.
• Makers make a plan to declutter closets and cupboards and garages—to give away our excess stuff to someone who needs it.
• Makers make time for a friend who’s grieving: listen as she talks, pick her kids up after school for a play date with yours, offer to grocery shop or clean her house.
• Makers make something of lasting value in a third world country — a school, a clinic, a better life.
• Makers make amends. Because people are our most valuable assets.
• Makers make un-erasable memories with a loved one.

What if you could make something really great this year? You can. Some assembly may be required.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)