#152 First Day of Daycare
01 June 2021 // San Diego, California
Kind of a big week for us...
Rhys started daycare this week!
It kind of marks the end of a year-plus of working from home while juggling baby chasing, getting an absurd amount of things done during nap times and early in the morning to make up for the rest of the day, and random midweek dad dates of scouting out the best playgrounds or walking spots.
The whole time we knew that wasn’t sustainable but if soldiers bond in trenches, so can new dads and one year olds. I knew while it was happening that the day would come that I look back at it nostalgically. Thursday afternoon playground visits. Bluey episodes to buy me time to send emails. Just watching him grow up!
I’m proud of us, for doing what it takes to pull off this past year and putting our family first. And I love this guy so, so much. Not even in the way that I’m “supposed to” being his dad and all. I just straight up think Rhys is great. I love all this personality that’s emerging, the strength of will, and the adaptable spirit.
You’re gonna light up that 6 months to two years caterpillar room!
#153 Ethiopia Office Book
02 June 2021 // San Diego, California
Remembering is resistance.
I liked Colson Whitehead’s book The Underground Railroad. I saw it was being adapted for a series by Barry Jenkins, and was intrigued. I haven’t seen it yet, but it sparked a conversation around how to depict traumatic events throughout history.
To be honest, there’s a real tension between wanting to commemorate these events with a never-forget kind of energy, and the reality that the communities who’ve been hit by them directly don’t need to be retraumatized over and over.
Then two things happened in the past week that added further layers to that discussion.
The 100-year-anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre on Black Wall Street. The outright destruction of a thriving Black district because of white supremacy. It’s an event that only started receiving a spike of media attention in the past 2-3 years. Three survivors- Mother Randle, Viola Fletcher, and Hughes Van Ellis made recent appearances in a commemorative event, a reminder of the lives upended that never received justice.
Then there was the discovery of the remains of 215 children at a residential school in Kamloops British Columbia. Residential Schools were a practice by Catholic and Protestant churches in Canada, and the Canadian government where children were removed from their families and sent to ‘boarding schools’ intended to separate them from their cultural identity. Over 90% experienced some form of abuse and the schools had a 40-60% mortality rate. This was not long ago.
Honestly I don’t think there can be a totally “right” response to events so far removed from any notion of the way things should be. Concerns over the consumption of shared trauma are valid. But I have learned two things lately:
Nothing heals that isn’t grieved.
Rememberance can be resistance in a world that would rather have you forget and move on.
#154 Shallot Noodle
03 June 2021 // San Diego, California
Stories are important no matter our age but...
...the first stories we encounter will shape us for good in ways we’ll never totally understand.
Two of my biggest values include the following:
Looking at the ordinary, the mundane, the small, and seeing an entire world of wonder and possibility.
Making room for the people who often don’t see themselves represented in certain spaces, inviting others to the table.
This year, we said goodbye to two remarkable children’s authors who embodied these two things well and did so for a long, long time. Beverly Cleary wrote books for the ones who didn’t fit in, the slightly different, the neurodiverse. Eric Carle- and I love the full quote in this drawing- wrote so that others could see the bigger world beyond the one most people take for granted.
#155 Craft Highball
04 June 2021 // San Diego, California
“Do not try to satisfy your vanity by teaching a great many things. Awaken people’s curiosity. It is enough to open minds, do not overload them. Put there just a spark. If there is some flammable stuff, it will catch fire.”
–Anatole France
This quote challenges and confronts me, and I love it for that.
Right now, most of my creative opportunities are blended with opportunities to educate people. To enlighten and hopefully rally people towards a cause. To prioritize justice and realign life around it.
With all that said, it’s an easy temptation to make my work entirely pedagogical- to make it all about teaching. It’s always easier to script a lesson plan rather than a storyboard.
But the more I work on stories rather than seminars, the better my work is. Whenever I take the extra effort to make sure I’m not just connecting linear facts, but also playing the instrument of people’s imagination, the work shines for itself.
It usually takes more effort. It takes writing a whole script then going back and asking about how it leaves a blank for the viewer to fill in themselves. It takes doing more than drawing a picture, but hopefully a picture that unlocks new vision.
#156 Unit 7
05 June 2021 // San Diego, California
Today launches the United Nations Decade of Ecosystem Restoration!
I used to gloss over events like these, under the impression that they were more ambitious than strategic, and not very enforceable.
Working in the world of international development, the environment, etc. has totally changed that opinion…
These initiatives help create common language, goals, and opportunities for NGOs, partner organizations, governments, and funders. Giving each of these stakeholders a shared framework leads to effective partnerships and knowledge sharing.
I'm also quite fond of this framework.
The focus on ecosystem restoration feels far more holistic than focusing on a single problem- as important as topics like climate or biodiversity are. Also... I love that it's not playing defense. It's not just about stopping destruction, but restoring eco-health.
#157 Oak Shade
06 June 2021 // San Diego, California
Beignet’s an Oregon gal.
It’s a great place to be a dog. All the weekend outings we used to take together up buttes and around waterfalls. Her life these days is just a bit too urban.
Ever since we moved to San Diego four years ago, I’ve been intent on bringing Beignet back to her old stomping grounds. I’ve wanted to lead her around some of her old favorite trails and parks around Eugene to see how much of it was familiar.
On our Northwest roadtrip, we took her back to her old favorite dog park. At four years older than she was the last time she was here, she’s no longer the fastest one, but it was so good to be back.
#158 Sick Rhys
07 June 2021 // San Diego, California
We’ve made it to a year and a half without Rhys getting sick, but that streak ended this week.
It’s no fun having a sick kid. It’d be so much easier to be the one who’s sick. I don’t just mean that in the noble, mushy way of wishing I could take it from him, although that’s true. But also, selfishly, it’s so much easier to take care of myself than a eighteen month old who has no context for feeling miserable.
He hasn’t had much exposure to other kids and is now suddenly getting it. I’m not surprised by this, really, and while I don’t think our lives will have such a thing as a “convenient time” to get sick ever again, I guess it could be worse. I’m not out of the country. We’re not travelling. We’re not mid-move.
It looks like we’ve started to turn a corner with the fever gone and more of his energy reemerging. Let’s hope we’re back to 100% fast.
#159 Planting Sweetgrass
08 June 2021 // San Diego, California
Nine years already, huh?
Deanna and I didn’t start dating until we’d been close friends for three years. It was the classic storyline you’d see on a TV series, where you can tell the writers were ramping up to it for a few seasons.
Actually, there were many reasons the start of our dating felt scripted, down to me asking her out not knowing it was just days before the deadline she told herself she’d move on if I didn’t make a move... the deadline was literally crossing the finish line at a marathon and this was all a couple weeks before we graduated.
Back then, I would’ve said it was like a movie. And all that was before the globetrotting, the hospitalization, the miracle baby, the medical breakthroughs, and survival moves. At this point we’ve probably hit cinematic universe status.
So glad I beat that finish line.
Love you so much Deanna - life keeps our hands full these days but it’s still even better than anything I could’ve imagined in 2012.
#160 Media Training
09 June 2021 // San Diego, California
"Maybe that's enlightenment enough: to know that there is no final resting place of the mind, no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom ... is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go."
–Anthony Bourdain
I am 100% ready for Morgan Neville’s film on his life. A whole lot of Fred Rogers’ complexity was just beneath his outward gentleness, and he did a great job with that. I think in a very different way there was more to love about Bourdain than the apparent.
#161 ENTER THE Jolibee
10 June 2021 // San Diego, California
I’ve been playing this minimalist version of fantasy baseball where I just have to pick a player I think will get a hit that night.
I’m amazingly terrible at this- somehow I keep managing to pick great players having bad days.
Fernando Tatis Jr., Shohei Ohtani, Ronald Acuña Jr., Will Smith, and Nolan Arenado all managed to have totally hitless days for me.
#162 Teralta Stroll
11 June 2021 // San Diego, California
It’ll always be funny to me how much of building a platform and a voice revolves around luck and opportune timing. By this point, I’ve been working on building brands, thought leaders, and making media content perpetually for a decade, and I think I have a generally strong sense for all the best practices and big ideas out there.
But of 4100 posts to Instagram so far, it was one that brought in 5,000 of my 5,500 followers. And nearly every YouTube subscriber can be traced to my one video on Raya and the Last Dragon.
Showing up and continuing to make the work is important, because none of those windfalls happen without showing up to each of those 4100 posts. But also, timing seems to make the biggest difference- over content and quality and anything else. Popularity isn’t to be taken too seriously as a stand in for quality.
#163 House Hunt Scramble
12 June 2021 // San Diego, California
“The mutuality of moss and water. Isn’t this the way we love, the way love propels our unfolding? We are shaped by our affinity for love, expanded by its presence and shrunken by its lack.”
–Robin Wall Kimmerer
Some of you may already know this, but I think moss is wonderful- ecologically and visually!
So I went to the place that should be at the top of any moss lover’s list… the Hoh Rainforest on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.
The place is on Hoh tribal land and within Olympic National Park. You’ll find tree species from red cedars to bigleaf maples to sitka spruce… but they’re all seemingly upstaged by their fur coats.
I absolutely loved the walk through the Hall of Mosses and couldn’t slow down enough to take this all in. Most incredible place I’ve been in a long time!
#164 Piecer’s Beach Day
13 June 2021 // San Diego, California
In very recent events, a surge in public awareness has been met by the censorship of education. A historic Black voter turnout has been met by voter suppression.
This can be discouraging- feeling like it’s ten steps forward, nine back. But with history as an indicator, it’s a sign that things are dynamic. The status quo has been challenged.
In one of his recent newsletters, Andre Henry shared that “The current hysteria in the U.S. about the growing influence of anti-racist ideas in the white world is a good sign in the struggle for racial progress. It suggests that last year’s uprisings for Black lives successfully knocked America’s white supremacist sensibilities off balance.”
It just isn’t the time to get complacent, but quite the opposite. While these institutions are off-balance, do not let them regain footing.
The question isn’t whether or not we’ll change the world in our lifetime, our world constantly changes and our very existence influences that. The bigger question is how will it change. How will we contribute?
#165 Pocket Play
14 June 2021 // San Diego, California
Two years ago I joined a group of high school students during their Climate Strike and school walkout.
🌎🌍🌏
It wasn’t the “main” one in town. Just the one closest to me. Still there were a lot of kids. And adults. I had the sense that this would be the start of something.
At the time, not everyone was convinced. There were adults along their route telling them they were being controlled by the media. There were supporters who had a hard time seeing it as another thing that would simply get lost in the stubborn persistence of the status quo.
Hearing one 16 year old after another, however, speak about what mattered to them confirmed my suspicion that this really was a turning point. At 16, I hardly ever thought about the environment, let alone how it was connected to refugees from the Pacific, marginalized urban communities, or disproportionate challenges faced by women and girls.
🗞📰🗞
Last week, we saw a string of headlines. On the same day, Stakeholders at Exxon and Chevron demanded a climate-responsive board and emissions cuts. The Netherlands tightened the deadline for Shell to cut emissions in half. And a week later the Keystone Pipeline was cancelled.
Half these headlines came from direct investors and the other half from popularly elected officials. I don’t think that those moves happen without the groundswell of pressure that had been building since 2019.
It’s easy to think of the status quo as stuck and to be frustrated when protests go seemingly nowhere. But pressure plus strategy can create change. Discouragement is common but don’t let it create another obstacle for yourself.
#166 Cafeina Comeback
15 June 2021 // San Diego, California
As we start looking -pretty actively- for our next home, I’m hopeful we can get in there soon as possible. Among the many, many problems I’m hoping a new space takes care of:
Space for Rhys to run around
Air conditioning, not to mention a place that doesn’t relentlessly trap heat
Being able to have my mom more quickly accessible
Having a more designated workspace that isn’t so easily interruptible
Space to put these large boxes that accumulate in the living room too quickly
Something equivalent to Rhys’ rice box but one that can live outside or in a garage
A backyard for Rhys and Beignet
A refrigerator that doesn’t break down so often for one reason or another… and that hopefully has more space
A neighborhood that doesn’t set the fireworks off and make Beignet hide in the worst places
Being able to just open a door to let Beignet out, without her protesting
#167 Goodmoments Meetup
16 June 2021 // National City, California
I heard a really good podcast conversation where a dad noted the three things he hoped to develop in his kids were resilience, presence, and empathy. At first, those three things sounded nice, if not somewhat randomly assembled, but the longer I sat with that the more I really liked this combination.
Each of these traits, fully realized, could turn into practical superpowers.
Somebody who is fiercely resilient can recover quickly or consistently from all the surprising and unpredictable parts of life that strike inevitably.
Somebody who is radically present will get a lot out of life, to put it simply. But they’ll also give a lot to others. So many people go unseen, or feel simply rushed from one person’s agenda to the next. Radical presence changes this.
Empathy and somebody who can truly understand what others are going through and every hope, dream, and insecurity, can offer something few can.
These are incredible traits that I hope to develop in both myself and my own family.
#168 Reopening Week
17 June 2021 // San Diego, California
There's one person in particular who has done the most as far as getting recognition for Juneteenth as a public holiday- Opal Lee, a 94 year old woman who walked from Fort Worth to D.C. in 2016 to collect signatures to instate the holiday. She also happens to be quite passionate about climate change.
From her conversation with Brittany Packnett Cunningham:
"I really believe that we should be able to work together to dispel the disparities that exist now, and I’m talking about homelessness. Everybody needs a decent place to stay. Joblessness, and even if you got a job and I’m paid one thing and you paid another, that’s not cool. Healthcare, I can get treatment and you can’t. Climate change, I’m adamant about climate change. The scientists have told us that we are committing the worst things on our Earth and I truly believe if we don’t do something about it, that we’re all going to be annihilated, but we can work together as opposed to what is happening now. I firmly believe that, and I believe Juneteenth is the catalyst to make that come true."
#169 Marlborough Corners
18 June 2021 // San Diego, California
We've been stuck at home in a pandemic for months and NOW is the time they decide to release a final season of Kims Convenience, Lupin s2, Ted Lasso s2, Luca, High on the Hog, Loki…
...I went with Luca tonight and that flick was dec-a-dent! *chef’s kiss*
“There will always be those who do not accept him. But there will be those who do. And he always manages to find the good ones.”
I get excited thinking about how this film could find its way to some kids out there who really need to hear that, while going right over the heads of those who stand in the way.
#170 Black Mountain Open Space
19 June 2021 // San Diego, California
Juneteenth! Creating culture, in part, happens through what you celebrate.
#Juneteenth is a celebration. Not a finish line, but a celebration.
“The slow work of emancipation is a daily project.”
–Kimberly Drew
#171 Fathers Day at the Zoo
20 June 2021 // San Diego, California
What can I say, I always wanted to be a dad and it’s everything I could’ve ever dreamed up. Getting to explore the world alongside Rhys makes everything feels like it’s right where it should be.
Father’s Day can be so complicated for so many, and I wish it weren’t like that but I know that it is because that’s how it was for me for the majority of my life.
But today was so uncomplicated. And good. I got to be a dad, we got to see a camel for the first time, and I got to read him a new book.
Feeling grateful that this is something possible in life… something complicated can in time become something simple and good.
Love you Rhys! Like you hear me say every day, I love getting to be your dad.
#172 Teralta Tree
21 June 2021 // San Diego, California
When you’re an athlete, wins and losses matter. If somebody says they don’t, you don’t really want that person on your team.
At the same time, you want to be with mental competitors who know how to compartmentalism the scoreboard. Who don’t get so high off their own successes that they get sloppy, or so low off their mistakes that they just start flailing.
You want someone who can be wholly in the moment, who can make their approach to the game all about preparation, instinct, and having a winning process.
I think being a changemaker isn’t so different.
When it comes to creating social change, very few things are outright wins and losses. The best and worst of moments set all kinds of reactions into motion.
What’s important is to make fighting for justice an instinct. Of course you play to win, but you’ve got to do so in a way where even if it doesn’t happen right away you set yourself up to win the long game. And you do that by having the reflexes to stand up against what isn’t right, time and time again.
#173 Great New Kids Books
22 June 2021 // San Diego, California
One of the traits I’ve come to admire the most is simple sincerity.
I love folks who have greater access to their heart, who aren’t afraid to keep a throughline between what’s inside and how they navigate the world. I love it when people are free from having to hide behind the walls of projecting an image or following rules that should’ve never been written in the first place.
I think I tend to craft the things I say very carefully. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, because it’s part of what I do. I’m a strategic communicator and I think that strategic part is important. But people who can share more of their inner worlds safely, off the fly, have a level of comfort, presence, and integration I like a lot.
#174 Mission Bay Sidewalk
23 June 2021 // San Diego, California
I’m finishing up a biography on Roy Halladay and so many things are standing out to me about the complex life of the most dominating pitcher I’ve seen.
His mental game was both his strength, but in some ways an Achilles heel too. There are so many ways Roy embodied the extremes of an Enneagram 3- driven to excel, sensitive to outward appearances.
The thing that probably struck me the most were the struggles with painkillers- which is not at all how I’d want one of my favorite pitchers ever to be remembered, but it was a very good reminder that addiction isn’t just a challenge that faces disheveled and psychotic people we see around the street corners. Often it can sneak up on a person, triggered by a freak injury, within a year or two of throwing a perfect game and rescuing someone from drowning in the Amazon. Not that the folks on the street don’t need more empathy, too. But it’s a reminder of how prevalent and sneaky of a threat addiction can be.
#175 The Slider
24 June 2021 // San Diego, California
Some of the most exciting creative stuff happens in kids’ books. At their best- they speak to both current kids and everyone’s inner child.
The past month or two have been incredible in terms of newly released kids books. One right after the other.
The Circles All Around Us by Brad and Kristi Montague is a beautiful book about making the whole world your community. Pro-tip: Check out some of the recent videos Brad has been putting out to go alongside the message of this book!
What Is God Like by Rachel Held Evans & Matthew Paul Turner is an absolutely beautiful book. You can read each page or look at each of Ying Hui Tan’s illustrations and see something true and beautiful- then look again and see deeper layers of meaning and art. I love that it invites wonder and curiosity and reverence into some of those early God conversations, rather than oversimplified dogmatic takeaways.
And while it has a totally different tone but I absolutely love reading A Pizza With Everything On It by Kyle Scheele & Andy J. Pizza to Rhys in the most over the top voices. It’s an absurdist father-and-son book and that’s totally my jam.
When’s the last time a kids’ book stopped you in your tracks?
#176 Cafeina Patio
25 June 2021 // San Diego, California
At the beginning of this year, one of my goals was to abandon my to-do list. To literally approach each day with more of an attitude that says “let’s see what happens” rather than “this must get done.”
I figured this would be a good step towards being more invested in the process rather than production.
I think that served me well. I’m so glad I did it.
Recently, though, with all the competing demands for my attention, I’ve basically found it necessary to start back up again. Maybe not so much to-do lists but schedules that block out my time. Mainly so I don’t miss meetings or accidentally book overlapping things.
I think the mindset I got used to during those times without a list prepared me better for this time that I need a more defined calendar. Plus I’m aiming to use this calendar as a tool that helps me be present rather than one that hinders it.
When I have a task at hand, I’ll try to be as present for that task as humanly possible, enjoying it, playing with it.
I think that’ll end up being the best way.
#177 Cousins at the Beach
26 June 2021 // San Diego, California
Next week brings the exact midpoint of 2021. It’s a time of feeling halfway through a year who’s whole theme seems to be halfway through.
We’ve got one foot in hardship and one in hope. I know I’ll look back at this year- and probably this whole stretch of my life- as a plate full of contrasting flavors. Lots of undeniably beautiful things right alongside atrocity. A constant teetering between saying ‘I can’t believe we’re still doing this’ and ‘I can’t believe it’s already…’
Right when I remembered it was the half-way point, my natural instincts were to think “whoa- half a year already. What have I even done?” I thought that right away, even though it really doesn’t make sense at all.
This year, I’ve unlocked new opportunities to do what I love in the realm of climate communications and promoting environmental solutions. I’ve spent unforgettable quality moments with Rhys at an extremely fun age. I’m proud of my art. I’m proud of the videos I’ve been making, meeting my own aspiration of releasing two a month and trying out different approaches to storytelling. I’ve even managed to go a few places, pandemic be damned.
I’ve been up to a lot, and even if I weren’t, that would still be fine. This reflex points towards something I’m still trying to unlearn. But hey. It’s all about the process.
#178 Sixth Anniversary
27 June 2021 // Del Mar, California
“A happy family is but an earlier heaven.”
– George Bernard Shaw
2015: We got married!
2016: We survived a scary hospitalization and took home a Beignet.
2017: Moved to San Diego, worked on our dreams.
2018: A challenging year of trying, waiting, hoping, praying to become parents.
2019: Rhys entered our lives.
2020: We put family first, looked out for each other, and stayed safe amidst a global pandemic and other chaotic events.
2021: The adventure continues!
Eventually we’ll be at a point where these recaps don’t fit, and already these condensed bullets don’t do the whole story justice.
But the point is- these past six years have been a bigger adventure than I would’ve ever predicted… and we made adventure the theme of our wedding so we anticipated a fair amount of it!
There’s no one else I would’ve loved doing all this with. Deanna- I love being married to you, going places with you, parenting with you, and all the little bits and pieces that make up our life together. You’re a phenomenal mom, a dedicated fighter for people, and my best friend.
#179 TJ Airport
28 June 2021 // Tijuana, Mexico
The Tijuana Airport… what a sight for sore eyes!
It’s a special moment in history where we get to be sentimental over airport terminal food.
Also… of all restaurants for the Tijuana airport to have in the most prominent spot, we’ve got a Johnny Rockets. Go figure.
#180 Esperanza’s Tree
29 June 2021 // Oaxaca, Mexico
You will travel again.
You will set foot on soils with microorganisms unlike any you’ve ever encountered. You’ll sit in front of a menu full of the unfamiliar. You’ll take in all the sounds and smells of a village, feeling alive and not taking it for granted.
I’m thinking of all the times I told myself this over the past year, and now… it’s happening! Out of the country! By plane!
Traveling fills my bucket, so I never expected to see the point where I’d have to spend two whole years with very minimal travel. But I’m fortunate and privileged. To have traveled so much already, and to be traveling again.
This time, it’s a new place for me… Oaxaca. I’ve never been to this part of Mexico before. It has rich indigenous traditions, colorful craftsmanship, some of the country’s highest poverty rates, and an incredible local cuisine.
I’ll be going to work on multiple video projects that capture the stories of farming families in rural Oaxaca. So many of their stories sit at the intersection of climate change, migration, and indigenous rights. I can’t wait to discover what I discover.
The world at large is at very different places when it comes to the pandemic and travel, and I want to move mindfully of that. But I’m undeniably happy to be reconnected with this thing I do that brings me a lot of joy.
#181 Tree Planting
30 June 2021 // Oaxaca, Mexico
As climate change wreaks even more havoc this summer, I keep thinking about the importance of climate resilience–and not just in terms of people’s ability to physically survive. Climate resilience also includes mental, emotional, and psychological resilience to the changes and the work ahead.
The reality is, even if we were to exceed anybody’s most optimistic expectations and bring our greenhouse gas emissions down to a pre-industrial level next week, we’d still have several years of heatwaves, tropical storms, wildfires, and droughts.
I’ve spent this week around smallholder farmers solving environmental issues in Mexico. I spend most of my weeks around people working tirelessly towards climate solutions. Know what I keep seeing? People are saddened and enraged by recent events, but not surprised. And they sure aren’t giving up.
We’ve gotta invest in our ability to find joy before the work is complete, to experience gratitude alongside grief, and to still soak in the moments along the way that make the process feel worthwhile.