Big Rock. Little Rock. The Valley. The Secret Passage Way.
The names flashed through my head as I read Clare Cooper Marcus’ book, House as Mirror of Self. She wrote, in part, about the unique and magical relationships children form with their environments, both in their larger surroundings as well as within the walls of their homes. They stake out territories, marked with signs on their bedroom doors or sometimes a mysteriously bent twig on a woodland path. They build forts out of wood, or sometimes just pillows and blankets when forced to stay indoors. If they have a bit of land to explore, they draw out carefully detailed maps, sometimes marking where they have stored their treasures. They give their landmarks and favorite haunts names as all the children in my neighborhood certainly did. They, we, are compelled to stake claim.
And if they are wild children, like I was, still with some land to roam, they get to know the locals. Sometimes they name them, too. To a growing child, relationships are natural, inevitable and assumed.
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