Loving God By Loving Creation

What’s it like working at a Christian environmental organization?

I get asked that a bunch because of the perceived divide between churchgoers and climate activists.

📈 A 2010 study found that only 6% of American adults said that their religious beliefs influenced their thoughts on environmental protection laws. ⛪️ It also found that the religiously unaffiliated showed the greatest concern for climate change.

But in my view, it’s all about relationship. Our relationship with the Earth reflects our relationship with the Divine. 🌎 I think my faith informs the importance of needing to care for the Earth, and I find that doing so enriched my spiritual life.

After all, everything about nature highlights how God is all about life, thriving, abundance, and diversity. Seeing the interconnected parts of an ecosystem reinforce the idea that everything is connected, and that there’s nothing created without purpose. Even opossums.

Outside the United States, people of faith find their relationship with nature much more integrated with their relationship with God and I’ve learned a lot from working with them.

My newest #grassrootspodcast episode is on the crossroads of faith and sustainability. Whether you share these same beliefs or you’re just curious about how I and @plantwpurpose see them fitting together, do check out that link in my bio. Or better yet, subscribe!

This episode features:
👨🏻‍💻Author Matthew Sleeth
🙋🏼‍♀️Contemplative Spirituality Teacher Phileena Heurtz
🤵🏼Pastor Tim Beuchsel
👨🏽‍🌾👨🏿‍🌾 Plant With Purpose Directors Tui & Noe

Rodney Scott's BBQ

Work hard and have fun doing what you love.

I love Rodney Scott’s story because it reminds me that it isn’t about having your work seen by millions. It’s about doing good work for the sake of doing good work and having a blast while doing it. 💥

The Southern BBQ legend comes from a rural small town in South Carolina. The gas station BBQ shack his dad started began to get noticed for the amount of care that went into the cooking. 🥩 Meat would be smoked very, very slowly over locally sourced pinewood. The work is tough enough that one of his cooks once lost 15 lbs his first week on the job.

While it’s hard work, Rodney also makes sure to have fun doing it. His work uniform is a shirt that reads “Every Day a Good Day” and there’s classic hip hop and R&B bumping the entire time. He takes his playlists almost as seriously as he takes his recipes.

When he noticed people would drive 80 miles from Charleston to go get some, he opened up a joint there. I knew I had to try it. I first heard about his story on The Splendid Table, about how a casual BBQ joint with fast food vibes won a James Beard Award usually reserved for much fancier venues. 🎖 I had to give it a try.

My take? Get the ribs. The ribs reward all the effort that goes into making them.

This has been another edition of #philippeatethat - thanks!

The Haiti Team Recording

When I say the Haiti episode of our podcast was the hardest to make, here’s what I mean-

There are so many different problematic ways that people often talk about Haiti. From “see how people can be so happy with so little” to shocking and undignifying images of poverty porn. 🇭🇹Haiti is beautiful, complex, and so much more than those narratives.

Unfortunately, that’s what happens when Haiti’s narrative has been shaped by outsiders.

So when it came time to feature Haiti as an episode on my podcast, I knew that I needed to involve Haitians in its creation.

🇭🇹🇭🇹🇭🇹

Collecting Haitian interviews was no easy task. I asked our Haitian Plant With Purpose director Guy for help, and he rounded up the group of men and women you hear on the finished product. But before we could start, we spent an hour and a half tinkering with both my phone and computer to get the internet to work. 📱💻📱When that was done, searching the Internet far and wide for voice actors with the appropriate accents to dub their translated Kreyol was another challenge.

Honestly, there were a lot of points during the interview call where I wanted to give up, but two things kept me going. 1️⃣ I knew our Haiti team drove about 3.5 hours into Port Au Prince just to have that internet connection for our interview. 2️⃣ I kept thinking of my visit to Haiti last year and remembered how each night Guy and his team spent close to an hour trying to yank a portable generator into starting so we could have electricity. Persistence is a big deal in Haiti.

In the end, I’m glad we struggled through in order to make this episode the right way. I’m so happy with how it turned out. We’ll have another new one drop next week, but if you haven’t heard Haiti’s Challenge yet, I invite you to go do so

In some ways Haiti is one of the most challenging places to talk about, and in other ways it is the perfect place to see where the environment and poverty intersect. It's a challenge, because Haiti has been portrayed in such harmful ways over the years.

Intro To Me

New friends keep showing up! 🌿

So hey! Maybe we met at ATL Ideas or you found me by way of the Grassroots Podcast - whichever way, I’m glad you’re here. Good time for a proper intro, yeah?

Here’s the technical work deets: I’m Philippe, and I’m the Creative Director for Plant With Purpose. 🌿 We’re an international nonprofit that aims to restore hope to villages where life is really difficult. We do that by planting trees and empowering locals to tackle the two big issues at the root of so many problems– climate change and extreme poverty.

I happen to think that my role on the team is the fun one, I get to tell stories from these communities to move other people into action. We have a proven model, we just need to scale up, so I use every creative tool at my disposal to try and bring more people on board. 🎞💻📸 Day-to-day that can look like writing emails, running social media, whipping up graphics on Photoshop and Illustrator, or writing scripts and planning videos.

These days, my big project is our podcast- Grassroots! 🗺 I think it’s one of the best ways to get to know the issue better and I’m honestly pretty proud of the episodes we have out on Haiti, the Gabra tribe, and vulnerability.

That’s the WHAT of what I do, but my WHY is hope. In both my own life and at a global level, I believe in hope, even in the face of daunting things like anxiety, climate change, or political unrest.

I love to travel, and I used to visit dozens of places every year. Over that time, I discovered that there was a lot of hope to be found in the hardest places, but cultivating that hope takes commitment, a long term investment, and equipping locals.

I’m super curious to see how these values, endeavors, and interests will evolve as I become a dad this fall!

Tenderness Is

Last Wednesday night, I got to hear Father Gregory Boyle speak.

If you don’t know who he is, he is the priest who runs Homeboy Industries - check out his book, Tattoos on the Heart or type his name into the search bar of any podcast player. I promise you won’t regret it.

I missed the opportunity to see him in person twice this year, but I suppose everything happens when it’s supposed to.

He filled the room with so much heart and wisdom, sharing stories from the streets of LA, and other bits of wisdom.

“Tenderness is the highest form of spiritual maturity,” he emphasized.

He’s right. Because if the greatest law is loving God and neighbor, and if the greatest love is sacrifice— it takes real tenderness to do that.

Tenderness is sitting with the events of this week and the improbability of anything getting better soon, but not growing cynical or jaded.

Tenderness is moving towards the people who are hurting instead of building a wall between their pain and your security.

Tenderness isn’t weakness. It’s knowing that instruments of love- maybe a pint of donated blood, maybe a march for our lives, maybe a brave conversation- are much stronger than instruments of hate.

Back From Atlanta

And now, we trek back into reality!

My time in Atlanta was such a good and necessary one. From landing to takeoff, there wasn’t a single hour that could’ve been better spent. 🍑 Between ATL Ideas and a handful of meet ups, I got my soul bucket filled with enthusiasm, community, and inspiration.

It was a reminder to do the little things well but not to lose sight of the big picture– the all caps reason WHY I do the things I do.

For me, whether that’s my work with Plant With Purpose, my podcast, nonprofit branding, writing, or even the way I spend time with people and my family, I think it’s all about hope. 🌿 It’s about going into dark places with a sincere belief that efforts to bring light are not done in vain.

And I’ll be honest- after this weekend, this country does feel like a dark place. But of course, that’s just a horrific manifestation of the racism, fear, and tribalism that goes on every day.

A core belief I share with the Plywood People community- the one that keeps me coming to the opposite coast- is that Better Is Possible. The future can be so much better, but the time we start preparing for that future is right now.

ATL Ideas

ATL Ideas! 🍑 What a fun past three days it’s been in Atlanta.

I’m back home now, but I’ve got a mini notebook full of ideas, pockets full of new friends’ contact info, and a heart full of motivation.

Conferences are a vital part of my work: making new connections, being in the places where change is being made, and investing in myself are all important. But with the kiddo on his way, I do have to be a little bit selective. Plywood Presents is consistently a fave.

I’ll be digesting things that happened this week for a good while. Some of my favorite quotes and takeaways are in my stories highlight for ATL Ideas but here are some things that I personally got out of my time in Atlanta:

1️⃣ No matter where you are on your creative journey, you’ll always feel the gap in between where you are and where you want to be. It’s never too early to learn to stop comparing yourself to others and to instead learn from them!

2️⃣ Always look to see who is missing from the picture. Inclusion can’t be a passive act. Whether I’m thinking of podcast guests, books on my nightstand, or friends in my crew, it takes intent.

3️⃣ Community is worth the struggle. This reminder comes from side hang outs in Atlanta just as much as it comes from conference content. Gathering people together isn’t always an easy thing. But it’s so important it’s worth fighting for.

4️⃣ Finding your core message takes digging deep. Joe Bunting threw out the challenge to focus on your core message and Amber Rae led a session that felt a bit like Inside Out meets therapy. All of it seemed to lead to this: the message you must share with the world is often the one you most needed to hear.

AUGUST 2019

#213 ATL Ideas

01 August 2019 // Atlanta, Georgia

And now, we trek back into reality!

My time in Atlanta was such a good and necessary one. From landing to takeoff, there wasn’t a single hour that could’ve been better spent. 🍑 Between #atlideas and a handful of meet ups, I got my soul bucket filled with enthusiasm, community, and inspiration.

It was a reminder to do the little things well but not to lose sight of the big picture– the all caps reason WHY I do the things I do.

For me, whether that’s my work with @plantwpurpose, my podcast, nonprofit branding, writing, or even the way I spend time with people and my family, I think it’s all about hope. 🌿 It’s about going into dark places with a sincere belief that efforts to bring light are not done in vain.

And I’ll be honest- after this weekend, this country does feel like a dark place. But of course, that’s just a horrific manifestation of the racism, fear, and tribalism that goes on every day.

A core belief I share with the @plywoodpeople community- the one that keeps me coming to the opposite coast- is that #betterispossible. The future can be so much better, but the time we start preparing for that future is right now.

#214 A Tree L

02 August 2019 // Atlanta, Georgia

I learned some new things about the City of Atlanta this week:

Atlanta loves trees.

The city has almost a 50% forest cover- that beats out cities like Portland, San Francisco, Seattle or Denver by a good margin.

And while I was there they converted another 7 acres to forest space.

#215 Machata

03 August 2019 // San Diego, California

Macha is good.

Horchata is good.

Why didn’t anyone think of this sooner?

#216 The Backpack Drive

04 August 2019 // San Diego, California

Our church helped bring in over 120 backpacks for kids going back to school who may not have homes. Lots of other school supplies and money for bus vouchers came in too.

#217 3D Ultrasound

05 August 2019 // San Diego, California

Another look at boy boy. This time, we got to see that nose up close.

#218 Grassroots Postcard

06 August 2019 // San Diego, California

Designed a bunch of these to promote the podcast.

I like the way they turned out!

#219 Yerba PB

07 August 2019 // San Diego, California

Discovered a new spot for all things yerba mate related and I can’t wait to take everybody I know.

#220 Rebel Bem

08 August 2019 // San Diego, California

This one has been acting so strange lately. Is the summer heat getting to her? Probs. Also, she probably knows big changes are afoot.

#221 Bye Summer Interns

09 August 2019 // San Diego, California

One of the worst parts of my job is having to say bye to an intern class three times a year. This summer’s crop of interns have been great!

#222 Coronado Corners

10 August 2019 // Coronado, California

Simple Saturday quest of trying to get out of the house.

#223 Liberty Station Art Walk

11 August 2019 // San Diego, California

Owning a great pyrenees remains on my bucket list.

#224 I See You

12 August 2019 // San Diego, California

Congrats to Terrence Lester on this book! It’s a good read!

#225 Stay Classy SD

13 August 2019 // San Diego, California

Had a fantastic meeting with a guy running for City Council. Ended up offering a few publicity pointers I hope pay off.

#226 Shake Shack

14 August 2019 // La Jolla, California

Late night burger run. Finally had some crinkle fries I actually appreciate.

#227 Crisp Crust

15 August 2019 // San Diego, California

Haven’t had much luck making a pizza crust with the crisp I like. This was a huge step in the right direction.

#228 Upside Dog

16 August 2019 // San Diego, California

Didn’t take very long to become a huge fan of this fluff.

#229 KaMayan Spread

17 August 2019 // San Diego, California

Probably the best kind of party spread.

#230 bluetts in sd

18 August 2019 // San Diego, California

Thrilled to see these two in California again. Happy 7th anniversary!

#231 new desk

19 August 2019 // San Diego, California

Getting settled back into the office remodel.

#232 laptop

20 August 2019 // San Diego, California

Finally got a new laptop to make my work a little more mobile

#233 our alley

21 August 2019 // San Diego, California

So thankful for a day that looks like this again. Wouldn’t mind Bringing Back The Gray.

#234 costco canyon

22 August 2019 // San Diego, California

Having to come up with three fun facts about myself is weirdly a much harder task than it’s supposed to be.

#235 packed at petco

23 August 2019 // San Diego, California

Went to the Padres game for Players Weekend feat. black & white jerseys. Also happened to be a Beerfest. And the Red Sox were in town, and it was apparently a Star Wars themed night. Talk about having a little too much going on at once!

Oh, and Boston won 11-0.

#236 san diego baby shower

24 August 2019 // Escondido, California

Oh man! Baby shower number one was a success!
Deanna and I had the first of probably four showers to celebrate our guy on deck and we’re so happy to have such loving family members and friends.

Thanks so much to Ivy for putting so much energy and creativity and love into throwing this party. Can’t wait for our kiddos to have some cousin playtime!

#237 Gaya Gaya With The Aunts

25 August 2019 // San Diego, California

I’ve been wanting to experience Gaya Gaya forever. Doing so for a ube-centric brunch with the aunts was a perfect intro.

#238 Disney Plus

26 August 2019 // San Diego, California

What comes first? The birth of my son or the launch of Disney Plus?

#239 Collective Impact: Inspiration

27 August 2019 // San Diego, California

I’ve been promising myself I’d go to more creative meetups and workshops!

#240 Buga BBQ

28 August 2019 // San Diego, California

A night out for some Korean food with Deanna’s coworkers.

#241 Golden Hill Views

29 August 2019 // San Diego, California

One of San Diego’s more underrated neighborhoods.

#242 Plant With Purpose in Ethiopia

30 August 2019 // San Diego, California

Plant With Purpose’s new work in Ethiopia was just featured in a full-length piece in Christianity Today. Can’t wait to get to visit myself.

#243 Bre’s Show

31 August 2019 // Santa Barbara, California

So proud and excited for Bre with her show and album launch! Go Bre!

Haiti's Challenge

The people of Haiti are...

Resilient. Determined. Deserving of better.

🇭🇹🇭🇹🇭🇹

I have a new episode of the Grassroots podcast out and it is seriously my favorite. 📲📲📲 When we were planning out our season, I knew I wanted to do a Haiti episode, and I knew that would be ambitious.

See, the way people talk about Haiti has historically been pretty problematic. 🇭🇹 Some people see their jovial spirit and romanticize poverty, overlooking the reality of that struggle. 🇭🇹 Others can’t get over the visible poverty, failing to see the deeper identity of the people. 🇭🇹 Then, there is a huge savior complex present in so many narratives that center attention on volunteers rather than empowering Haitians.

Anyways, I wanted to involve Haitian voices at every step of this project. This episode features audio from my trip there last year, a conversation with Plant With Purpose’s Haitian team, and some interviews with people who have put in the time to get the nuances of talking about the country.

We get into deforestation, the ills of the charity sector, the struggle for hope, the Dominican border, it’s complex history with other countries, the recent protests and political upheavals, and what daily village life looks like.

The energy on this is episode is loaded!

My personal favorite part is towards the end when Brendon Anthony and Margaret DeJong, along with our Haitian partner Dezo fire back and forth about how those wanting to help can do better. 🔥🔥🔥

If you’ve been tuned in to the podcast, you are awesome! If you haven’t listened yet, this would be a sweet episode for you to jump in on. This is the “best foot forward” I don’t mind sticking out there.

In some ways Haiti is one of the most challenging places to talk about, and in other ways it is the perfect place to see where the environment and poverty intersect. It's a challenge, because Haiti has been portrayed in such harmful ways over the years.

On to ATL

Happy to share that I’ll be in Atlanta for a hot minute this week! I won’t be there that long- tomorrow until Friday, but I’m excited to be back.

Once again, I’ll be going for #plywoodpresents, which ended up being a lot of fun last year. And I’m pretty thrilled to see Father Greg Boyle on the speaker lineup for Plywood People along with a bunch of others.

Last year, I was caught off guard with how much I loved Atlanta. I mean, I’m a Phillies fan who hates being too hot and has mostly lived by mountains or the ocean. But- Atlanta is so full of fun and creative people it didn’t take too long for the city to win me over. Also, OutKast helped a little.

ATL friends, I’d love to find some time to connect during this quick little jaunt!

Traveler's Mindfulness

I’ve had this really bad habit when it comes to travel— it’s hard for me to visit a place without suddenly daydreaming about my next trip, and the one after that. It’s like one small taste of somewhere new will open up all the floodgates of daydreams about all the other places.

I’ll make it to Tennessee and then I’ll start imagining myself getting off a plane in Europe. I’ll be in Italy wondering when I’ll make it to Africa next. Then I’ll start thinking about maybe going on a similar trip, but somewhere more accessible so I can invite friends.

I hated the fact that I did this, because I wanted to be a better job of being present wherever I was. Always longing for what’s next is a good way to never enjoy what’s in front of you.

I started taking a page from the mindfulness playbook. I’ve stopped feeling bad about an enthusiastic brain so easily tickled by curiosity and adventure. I’ve also learned to just let the wanderlust dreams go.

It’s like when you’re meditating and they say if you have any outside thoughts or distractions, don’t feel guilty, just acknowledge them and let them go. I’ve started doing this with wanderlust.

I fully accept that I have a huge appetite to see places. When I find myself in one new place longing for another, I acknowledge that and let it go. Sometimes I’ll even open the note on my phone that has all my future trip ideas, add the new ideas, and put it away as a way of literally keeping those dreams in my back pocket- available to reopen at a better time.

Anybody else with this kind of habit about travel or anything else?

Empathy Over Originality

One of my biggest creative lessons over the past few years has been this: always choose empathy over originality.

Every creative wants their work to stand out and be remembered. We often do that by trying to think up something that feels completely original- like it’s never been done before.

The problem with that is that everything is a remix. 💽 It’s impossible to be truly original. So many efforts to be original have instead turned into gimmicks- interesting concepts without heart.

Instead, the best creative goal is to make people say “me too.” To make people feel less alone. ⚱️ The songs that make it onto people’s summer playlists and wedding marches are the ones that are so relatable it feels like they were written for them. Ben Howard didn’t write his first album with me in mind, but it sometimes feels that way!

It’s counterintuitive, but instead of asking what would make your work distinct, ask what would make it familiar. What would take feelings, questions, and experiences that many have felt, but few have been able to put into words... or music, or visuals, etc.

Empathy over originality, always!

See the full post.

Ecotourism

A lot of my more recent trips, Colombia and Wyoming in particular, have made me more and more interested in orienting my future trips around conservation and community development.

In Colombia, it felt especially good to know that my visit could be a source of encouragement and help to some of the locals I met. Our guide Carlos kept telling us about how much potential he could see from ecotourism, from nature walks to hacienda hotels to coffee shops.

I don’t know exactly when we’ll take our first trip as a family of three, but I want to do something that’s an overall win for the people who live there and their land. Maybe that looks like connecting with a local conservation group. Maybe that means staying at a farm stay.

You kinda have to do your homework with ecotourism because not everything that wears that label is what it seems. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a note saved on my phone with a few dozen ideas of places to research further.

Of course there will still be cities that lure me in with their vibrant cultures and cuisine- Lookin’ at you, NOLA. And there are manmade structures like St. Peter’s Basilica that are completely breathtaking.

But the more places I go, the less interested I am in just landmarks and the status symbol of checking off another place. I want conversations with locals. I want a sense of their concerns and hopes. I want to find a bug or bird that I can’t see back home in California. Far and away, the thing that I get most out of visiting new places is a deeper sense of connection to people and the planet.

Occasional Rule Follower

Rule following. It comes naturally to some, not always to me. Does that surprise you?

I want to respect other people and do no harm, but if a rule exists, I tend to want to know why. Complying with rules for the sake of rules doesn’t really come naturally. During the flight safety demo, I dive deeper into the book I’m reading. In school, my favorite place to play was an area that the school literally named, “Off Limits.” I thought that was just what the patch of trees was called, not an actual rule!

There are pros and cons to being a nonconformist or boundary pusher. And there are some areas of life, however, where I can flip the switch and be on perfect scout’s behavior.

One big one is following all the posted signs and stuff in public lands, national parks, and wildlife preserves.

While most of my instincts lean towards hopping fences and going off the main path, in these settings, I understand and can get behind the reasons these rules exist. Places like Zion, Yellowstone, or Horseshoe Bend are exhausted from the amount of visitors they take every year and that puts their ecology at risk.

Making visits more coordinated, streamlining human activity, and enforcing area restrictions aren’t total fixes, but they’re important for allowing these spaces to stay healthy while keeping them open for people to enjoy.

As much as I’d like to be my own trailblazer and beat my own drum, especially when basking in nature, it’s not about me. These places belong to the planet and to generations before and after.

Stalking Leopard Sharks

Even though I’ve been doing a lot less travel this summer while getting ready for baby, we’ve been on some pretty sweet adventures not far at all from home.

This week I went to an expecting parents gathering. It was in the ocean and everybody else there was actually a pregnant leopard shark. 🦈🦈🦈 They like to come to our coves in the summer and spawn. As long as you’re friendly, they’re friendly and they don’t mind swimming around your feet in while standing chest deep in between waves.

The feeling of warmer salt water on skin lately has been pretty much amazing. If I’m gonna be much more home based for the foreseeable future, I’ll be glad it’s a home fifteen minutes from the coast.

Big In-Between Moments

I don't like heat. I think I experience the world 20º than the average person. But I do love summer.

Last weekend, we went out to a bike path that runs right behind a bunch of strip malls and along the San Diego River. It's not hidden by any means, but it is easily overlooked. I love that we've been getting outside a good amount lately; that we've been getting sun and movement and salt water.

I'm learning to love these in-between moments. 🚲🚲🚲

The baby isn't here yet but the bump is growing.

The bigger adventures and trips that I want to go on are on pause, but we're finding microadventures right where we are.

The podcast hasn't fully materialized into the storytelling magnet I want it to be, but it's growing steadily and picking up new listeners each week.

Good things will come, but good things are already here, too.

Isn't life just a big in-between moment anyways?

It Threatens The Most Vulnerable

Have you heard of the Gabra people?

I hadn’t either. Not until I met and interviewed Paul Robinson.

👴🏿👳🏾‍♀️🧒🏿

The Gabra are a nomadic ethnic group that live on the frontier lands of Kenya and Ethiopia.

🧔🏼

Paul Robinson is a scholar who has spent 30+ years researching them.

Specifically, he looked into how they were able to survive living in one of the world’s harshest environments. Their tradition came down to being able to predict and follow rain.

🌧⚡️🌧

With incredible precision, they could tell you when the rain would fall and where, often down to the hour. They did all this without any fancy tools. Their lives depended on it, and they’ve made it work for centuries.

This group of people and this way of life is one of the ones most threatened by climate change. As global weather patterns have become unpredictable, the Gabra lost their resilience and are in greater need of food aid.

My newest podcast episode is OUT TODAY. 🔊🔊🔊

It features my interview with Dr. Robinson and looks at the way climate change is felt first by the most vulnerable communities.

Stream. 🔈Subscribe. Rate. Review. Pretty please.🙏🏽 Many thanks!

Grassroots is a podcast about hope for a weary land. It's a place where leading voices on faith and the environment join voices from marginalized communities. Because whether you're in the Amazon or the Arctic Circle, Africa or Arkansas, or our very own backyard, you're living on the frontlines of this issue.

Grassroots Launch Party

Over the weekend, Plant With Purpose threw a sweet little launch party at You Belong Here to celebrate the Grassroots Podcast. St. Archer’s donated beer, listeners came in from as far as LA, and I got to do my thing and talk about climate change concerns, the intersection of faith, and storytelling.

It’s a critical moment for the world, which is why I believe in this show. I believe that well told stories from often overlooked places can change everything. I’m thankful to have so much support while at it.

And on that note, when you wake up, there will probably be a fresh new episode in your podcast feed. I get to talk to the authors of one of the most eye opening books I’ve read this year, and you get to wake up to that! Assuming you’re subscribed. You are subscribed, right?

Backup Your Backups

There are few tangible things that I value quite as much as my photo archives. I’ve taken at least one photo a day for nearly a decade. If you know what to look for, you’ll find my most personal stories within those pictures. 🏞🎑🌅

This one is from 2014- the last time I got to see my grandma and the only time Deanna got to meet her. She would’ve turned 101 last week. I’m so glad we made that trip to the Philippines to see her. I’m so thankful for that trip and for pics like these.

I had a moment of panic when my hard drive with all my photos and creative work since 2010 crashed. Literally crashes. It took a nosedive off the sofa armrest I couldn’t stop in time. I didn’t want to think about all the possibly lost files.

⚡️⚡️⚡️

Similar things happened to me in 2011 and 2015, where I lost all my Argentina photos and honeymoon videos respectively. And thankfully I learned my lesson then. I was so relieved when I found a duplicate hard drive that I nearly forgot. It had everything up until this January- and everything else I could get from my phone.

Took a break from Insta so I could get those image files back and loaded.

And now I’m back to deliver this PSA: 📣Backup your backups. Then go out and get them some backups. And update them often. I am so thankful I did that.

Meb Keflizhigi, Grassroots, & It's a Boy!

MARIA ISABEL

The conflict in Colombia was brutal. So much so that many of the stories I heard there aren’t ones I always feel comfortable repeating.

🇨🇴🗺🇨🇴

A friend asked me if there was any concern that the fighting would reemerge. If the conflict could resume. Honestly, it was a good question. Both Colombian and American news sources I came across recently highlighted recent setbacks in the process of peace building.

But, based on what I saw in person: I feel pretty good about where things are heading in Colombia.

✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾

I feel that way because of the people I met. They were so committed to making sure things never went back to the way they were that it drove and motivated their daily activities.

Many people committed to creating more economic opportunities so people would be less vulnerable to violence.

Maria Isabel, who fed me the best soursop juice ever, ran her doll making shop and her farm with so much heart that you knew it wasn’t just about the dolls.

Others committed to empowering, healing, and educating others.

Angelita (second pics) played a specIal role in the reconciliation process by making sure women were front and center of healing efforts.

🔅🔅🔅

A single individual can’t really go to war on his own. Similarly, building peace takes all hands on deck. I’m glad Colombia has some great ones moving things forward.

VIOTA SCHOOL

This is what progress looks like to me. 🇨🇴🇨🇴🇨🇴🇨🇴🇨🇴

On one of our drives around Viotá, our driver slowed down to point out a marker on the side of the road. En memorial a todos las personas quien perdieron la vida en la guerra... in memory of those who lost their lives in the war. It was installed where about a decade ago, guerrilla fighters had slaughtered 22 paramilitary members.

Less than a half mile away from the marker, we passed by a school painted in bright orange.

“What happened to that school during that time? Would people even send their kids?”

Unsurprisingly the answer was no. This conflict disrupted everyday life to the point where kids couldn’t peacefully learn the skills for a better future.

🇨🇴🇨🇴🇨🇴🇨🇴🇨🇴

We spent most of that day with a group of young people, probably the right age to have been the students that missed school back then, learning what they were doing now to move forward. On the way back, we passed by that same site. To my surprise, we pulled over and were led into a classroom while class was in session.

The teacher introduces us to the students and they eagerly tell us everything that they do to care for the environment.

💧Not wasting water.

🗑 Throwing away trash in the right place.

🍥 Not tossing your gum in the streets.

👏🏽👏🏽

We have the ability to leave yesterday’s horrors behind. The future can be so much better.

GRASSROOTS IS HERE!

IT’S HERE. 🙌🏾 TODAY’S THE DAY!

The #grassrootspodcast is officially officially officially out, and what I mean by that is that the first full episode is out on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and everywhere else.

You can stream it.

You can subscribe.

You can leave a rating and review. (Well, on some podcast platforms.)

You can share this post in your stories, tag your friends in this post, and help me get the word out.

And I’d love for you to do all those things!

This @plantwpurpose podcast has been a labor of love. It’s been at least 30 hours of work a week from me for the past couple months. We surprised ourselves by getting some sweet guests lined up, and worked with some damn good collaborators (@nicklaparra, @chadmichaelsnavely, see what I did there?)

Here’s why. You’ve probably already heard that we’re in a crucial moment when it comes to dealing with our environmental crisis. And in places like Northern Thailand, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Haiti, this is a matter of immediate survival. But the voices of Haitians, Thai Farmers, Mozambican biologists, etc. are often left out of the important conversations.

This podcast is an attempt to apply my love of adventures, culture, and storytelling, to amplify their voices. Sometimes that’s meant wrestling with Haiti’s poor internet connectivity for two hours before getting to start an interview. Sometimes that’s meant literally going overseas to meet people directly.

And I’m convinced it’ll be worth it. And I can use your help! Listen! Subscribe! Rate! Share! And thanks already!!!

ROOT CAUSES

The thing that drew me towards international development were intense stories. Rescuing child soldiers. Providing relief to a war zone. Busting up a trafficking ring.

And for a while, I thought that was what my contribution to the world would look like.

And so I spent years trying to get closer and closer to the places where those things were happening so I could learn what I could do.

And the more time I spent around people, the more my thinking started to shift.

It’s great to rescue a trafficked kid, but it would be way better if the kid was never trafficked in the first place.

I realized that the one thing that consistently made people vulnerable to everything from war to trafficking to malnourishment was poverty. And I realized that the poorest people were coming from rural areas that they could no longer farm for a living because of soil erosion and climate change.

I tell a bit of my story in the first episode of the #grassrootspodcast. These days, my contribution looks like doing what I can to help rural villages plant trees and farm better. It’s a lot of little things instead of one large intervention.

And the thing that constantly surprises me? It all connects to those other issues that caught my attention in the first place. It’s not an exaggeration to say a healthy environment reduces the risk of human trafficking, puts more girls in school, and contributes to peace-building efforts.

Tune in to our first episode of Grassroots, The Roots of Everything. Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere else.

MEB’S BOOK

Insta was down, so I read six books. Kidding. These are my summer reads from the past few weeks.

I like running. Sometimes. But I feel like I enjoy reading about competitive running disproportionately more than I like doing it.

Meb’s book was a fun read. Especially for a plane ride. Some of his insights seemed a bit obvious, especially at first, but hearing how he’d change his approach to each race depending on his goals and physical condition really caught my interest, along with his strategy for each race itself.

Here’s what else I’ve read so far this summer:

📔 More Than Words by Jill Santopolo – I liked it! I found it really easy to empathize with each character.

📗 Normal People by Sally Rooney – Getting a lot of hype right now, but I liked it for similar reasons as More Than Words.

📓 Savage Feast by Boris Fishman – This one kind of dragged a bit. Had a hard time seeing why the author found certain stories important.

📒 Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport – Good ideas in here, but I think his outsider status as a social media nonuser didn’t come with the credibility he assumed.

📘 Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima – As simple and delicate as its cover indicates.

📕 Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton – An action movie in novel form, though some middle parts did drag. But I loved the setting of Australia’s seedy underbelly.

📘 The Nocilla Experience by Agustin Vello Fernandez – I read this in one sitting but that’s not necessarily a compliment. I’m a sucker for intertwining storylines that start off worlds apart, but this never really tied them together in a way that made sense.

FAITH & ENVIRONMENTALISM

One thing we’ve heard a lot about the podcast since it launched is that a lot of people appreciate the fact that we talk about faith and fighting climate change in equal droves. ⠀⠀
I appreciate hearing that! And at the same time, I wish it weren’t such an unusual combo. There’s no good reason why it should be. In fact, the further I look into it, spiritual growth and sustainability go hand in hand.

Here are a few things I wish were more common knowledge.

⛪️ If you believe in a Creator then placing a high value on creation just makes sense. The first role given to humans is to be protectors and servants of the earth and at no point does that get called off.

🌵 If you think the way our culture paints environmentalism and religion in opposition to each other is kinda dumb, you aren’t alone. You really, really aren’t alone. @plantwpurpose is a great org that approaches creation care from a faith standpoint, but it definitely isn’t the only one. There way more people out there who believe faith and sustainability go together than it often seems.

🇺🇸 In fact, the hesitancy that believers have towards environmental care is a mostly American perspective. One of the things that I appreciate about getting to work with people from several countries is seeing how in most other places, these lines of separation don’t exist.

🌎 If your faith compels you to love the poor and to serve the least of these, then promoting better environmental practices is one of the most effective ways to do so.

IT’S A BOY!

Who was thinking boy???

According to my Instagram survey, only 22% of you were. And I think Beignet was hoping for another girl. Or another puppy.

But we’re thrilled! See you in 3.5 months little man. We’ll keep in touch via morse code on mama’s belly til then.