Philippe Lazaro
OCTOBER 2016

Someone Else's Turf

Getting ready to travel soon, for the first time with my 3-under-3 crew. And here’s a big perspective on travel I’m hoping to pass on.

I think travel is good for people, generally speaking, and I don’t like to gatekeep what travel should look like. If you like cities, cool. Lots of human culture and story there. If nature’s more your thing, I feel that too.

I used to be all about the budget solo backpacking, but now that kids have entered the picture, I’m seeing all the times paying for a few more conveniences is worth it in the long haul.

But there is at least one mindset that I am absolutely opposed to, and it’s the one that completely looks past local communities, cultures, and environments and only sees a personal playground. One where a place’s worth is only defined by how much it’ll cater to a visitor’s comfort or interests or Instagram feed.

I’m all about having a good time when traveling, but I actually believe I’ve found travel so enriching because of this perspective.

When you travel, you are not setting foot on your personal playground.

You are on someone else’s soil.

You are in someone else’s home.

Have fun.

But go with appreciation and respect.

Clear's Law of Recurrence

I wish this was more common knowledge…

It’s called Clear’s Law of Recurrence because of the author James Clear.

It goes, an idea that gets repeated more, gets believed more. It doesn’t matter how good the idea is or if it makes sense.

In a lot of ways this seems like such an obvious, common sense thing. It’s kind of the reason people who think they uniquely see the truth all kind of use the same talking points. And yet we do stuff all the time like quote tweeting really bad takes just to argue with them.

First off, algorithms don’t really care that you’re dunking on the original post, they just see that it’s getting a lot of buzz and so maybe more people want to see it.

There’s a reason I follow you, and not that media personality or congressperson with the bad takes. I don’t want that on my feed.

To be nuanced, there’s a time and place to stand up to harmful rhetoric, but be careful that your instinct to react doesn’t play somebody else’s game for them.

Spend more of your energy getting the better idea out there, and figure out how to amplify it.

Strong Vulnerable Earth

There are so many examples of how nature is just plain powerful.

Gigantic redwoods, ocean currents, strong mammals.

This is what I love about spending time outside- you’re forced to humble yourself when confronted with nature’s wild strength.

But if you’re observant enough, you’ll note that nature is also really vulnerable.

Introduce a species to the wrong ecosystem, disregard soil biology when farming, be too zealous or too reckless with fire control, or simply consume way too much and you’ll see how fragile these places we love really are.

It almost seems like a paradox. Nature is strong. Nature is vulnerable. It’s a contradiction, right?

Maybe it’s not. Maybe these things never were opposites to begin with.

The strongest people I know are also some of the most vulnerable, open hearted people, who aren’t afraid to show their scars.

They don’t sweep their fears under the rug, or dismiss them for good vibes only. They know how grieve and mourn with those who mourn. They own their mistakes and their humanness.

Strength and vulnerability. Hand in hand.

Realm of the 52 Remedies

One of my favorite date nights over the past year was this one: a speakeasy hidden within another bar. One that made me feel like a Crazy Rich Asian.

This place was a lot of fun. I loved the ancient Chinese medicine theme, the secret passageway to get in… and the food was pretty great. Not to mention cocktails- loved the earl grey bourbon mix I had towards the end, and the scallop spaetzle.

Eager to go back!

Most Maps are Misleading

Most maps you see are pretty misleading

But I usually use a quick little India-Greenland test to see how off one is.

India is about 1.5x the size of Greenland… if I were to try and trace the country shapes on a globe and cut them out, you can see this pretty well.

But here’s what most paper maps show instead…

Greenland is often way larger than India… sometimes four times as big.

The reason this happens is that distortion is inevitable when you’re going from a 3D sphere to a flat projection, and whenever you try and compensate you usually wind up with a funny shape and have to splice through countries.

It doesn’t have to biased against countries closer to the equator though and in fact could favor them. But don’t forget most map makers live in the Global North.

Slot Canyons


My current aesthetic is all adventure-meets-domestic.

I love this crew so much. Among many other things, they’re my constant reminder that God is good, that so some of the seemingly impossible things we hope for are just around the corner, and not to wish ahead a single day.

Zoo Afternoon

Maurice Sendak was once asked to share his biggest piece of advice about raising children. “Love them,” he said.

At first I was like, well duh. Isn’t that just super obvious?

One day last week, Rhys had a pretty rough day at preschool… long story short he was bit by another kid and that’s not too uncommon at that age, but you wanna know that he’s safe and something you’d have to repeatedly worry about. It was easy to jump into problem solving mode, talking to the school and what not. Now Maurice Sednak’s advice makes a lot of sense to me. The most important thing in the moment was making sure my kid felt loved and safe. Sometimes that response can get buried by overthinking and problem solving.

We figured, getting to go to the zoo on a weeknight wouldn’t be a bad way to show Rhys some love. Kai and Juniper went to the zoo for the first time, and we found the new area opened as kind of an ultimate playground.

Bad days happen, but it’s a lot of fun to respond to someone having a bad day with some creativity, spontaneity, and lots of love.

Panta Rhei

Panta Rhei.

Ever hear of that phrase?

It literally means ‘everything flows.’

It’s attributed to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus to describe how change is constant. He said “You cannot step twice into the same rivers; for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you.”

Even if the river were static, it couldn’t be the same thing twice, because you yourself are changing.

That’s been an especially helpful reminder for me over the past few months, as I’ve been living in a stretch of my life that is simultaneously extremely demanding but incredibly sweet.

At the day to day level, it’s also felt like the same day over and over again, and as someone who thrives off breaking routines and going to the unfamiliar, it’s been challenging in ways that go beyond the physical tiredness.

But lately, I’ve also been delighted more and more by the small moments in between and the sheer sweetness of it all.

Washington State Ferry


The Washington State Ferry system has got to be the most underrated public transport system in the US. It’s not much of a surprise to Washingtonians, but it gets little buzz outside the PNW.

You can drive, bike, or walk onto the ferry and for a low cost it can take you to some of the coolest spots on the Puget Sound or Olympic Peninsula.

I’ve taken this thing to the San Juan Islands, Bainbridge Island, Seattle, Anacortes, Orcas…

I love being able to get out of my car and explore around the passenger area. Sitting at one of these tables staring out onto the ocean is a vibe.

Of course, I can never spend the whole ride there. As long as the weather allows, I love climbing on to the deck for the open air.

First time I took my kid he absolutely loved it- and here’s the thing that for me cements it as the best public transport in the U.S.

We totally saw an orca.

Me & My Cousins

Shoutout to everybody in the jumbo sized family club.

This is what it looks like when me and my cousins get together.

Some of my cousins.

On one side of my family alone I have 20. And now we’re all grown, lots of us with kids.

This means we don’t get to see each other all that often anymore, but when we do it looks like this.

April 2022

#92 Brussel Fry

01 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#93 Side Kai

02 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#94 Strolling for Soup

03 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#95 Red Green Leaves

04 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#96 Sweet Twin Morning

05 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#97 Ah Bella

06 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#98 Juniper in the Morning

07 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#99 Everything Everywhere

08 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#100 Deanna and Rhys at the Zoo

09 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#101 Palm Sunday Procession

10 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#102 Mommy Play

11 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#103 Rhys’ Balala

12 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#104 Marketing Dinner

13 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#105 Segway Squad

14 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#106 Primed

15 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#107 1st & 3rd Easters

16 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#108 3 Under 3aster

17 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#109 Pond Reeds

18 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#110 The Show Must Go

19 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#111 Lola Comes for Breakfast

20 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#112 Kai Krib

21 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#113 Dinner by Dee

22 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#114 Filipinx Cookbook

23 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#115 Five Months with Juniper & Kai

24 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#116 Piecer Bikes

25 April 2022 // San Diego, California

#117 Juniper in the Grass

26 April 2022 // Corona, California

#118 Kai’s Here

27 April 2022 // Carson, California

#119 Pharmacy Piecey

29 April 2022 // Carson, California

#120 Torrance Farmers Market

30 April 2022 // Torrance, California

The Most Consequential Photo I've Taken

This is perhaps the most consequential photo I’ve ever taken.

Not necessarily the best, but perhaps the most consequential.

I find a lot of joy and meaning in my life- adventures, community, projects that do good for the world… but this wasn’t always the case. As a college student at the end of 2009, I thought my life felt a bit empty. Directionless.

I wanted to live a better story. I decided to take on the project of taking a photo every day throughout the year.

This photo was from a New Years party in 2010. I don’t even know most of these people.

I figured it would at least encourage me to pay more attention to my surroundings and to train my eye for beauty. I also figured that if my photos were constantly of the same mundane thing every time, it would signal a need to go do something different.

I’m not the first or last to do a project like this. It’s not especially original, but what’s special is the impact it had on my life and the fact that I’ve now been at it for twelve years.

I’ve captured the evolution of my love story and family.

Countless adventures around the world.

And my journey to use creativity to solve world problems.

This was the start of my journey as a storyteller, and why I see my life as a story and the world around me as a great big story full of interconnected threads. That’s why this is perhaps the most consequential photo I’ve ever taken.

Best Dog Park Ever

Right around this time last year, so much was happening. A year to the date was when Deanna first found out we were pregnant again… she’d tell me a little bit later on Easter. Yup, it was on April Fool’s Day and I guess the joke was that she didn’t know there were two kiddos in there just yet.

This was shortly after we took a family trip to Arizona and got to take Beignet to the best dog park ever.

Hopefully that makes up to the fact that we haven’t been to the dog park a whole lot since Kai & Juniper showed up.

He Escaped War

Chagga and his neighbors have not had easy lives. I met him in Thailand, but they aren’t Thai. They’re part of an ethnic group called the Lahu and they originally lived in Myanmar.

They faced a lot of persecution, though. When he was younger they had to escape the Burmese military, which is how he wound up in Thailand. Things got better but they were still tough.

As noncitizens they couldn’t own land. And local governments and industries often tried to have them kicked out of the forest that they lived in and relied on for survival.

Being trained in forest management didn’t just support their livelihood, it also helped them make a case to stay.

When I met Chagga, he was with his grandson. I asked him if he thought the boy would have a better life than he did. Kind of an obvious question but he replied.

When I was his age, we had to put down our animals because their sounds would give our location away to the soldiers.

Of course he is going to have a better life.

Strollin

Life is so freaking domestic right now! But I’m happy.

I heard Laurie Santos talk about how many young parents experience life on two separate tracks- on one hand the minute by minute experience is kind of rough. Taking care of littles is demanding. On the other hand, it does give you satisfaction on a totally different level.

This window in my life is such a wild paradox, it’s hard to know how to even start talking about it. Living in survival mode has made it harder to stay creative, inspired, and present.

The hardest part of having three kids under three for me? It isn’t the lack of sleep, the rising costs of everything, or the fact that at all times, I’ve got to be changing somebody, feeding somebody, or holding and consoling somebody… it’s the Groundhog Day-ness of it all. The adventures, diversions, and breaks from the routines have all been a bit out of reach for the past few months, and if you know me, you know I feel the most alive around the unfamiliar.

But talking about it that way doesn’t seem to do justice to the fact that it’s also the sweetest season of my life and I’m continually astounded with how much of a distinct personality I see out of each child. I almost physically feel some invisible happiness meter start to surge whenever I’m reading books with Rhys, or simply holding Kai or Juniper against my shoulder.

I guess it’s simply a lot. And that’s kind of what’s beautiful about it.

Five Years at Plant With Purpose

This month I’m celebrating FIVE YEARS as a climate storyteller. Back in 2017, I started applying my creative skills to the crisis that defines our generation, and it’s been a wild time.

I’ve been doing this through years of wildfires, hurricanes, and heatwaves, a new IPCC report, the student-led climate strikes, and climate consciousness entering the mainstream.

Climate change is urgent and devastating and is already wreaking havoc on millions of lives. Having that narrative as part of my daily work should be overwhelming, right? Some days, for sure! But there’s also so much more to it… more than I would’ve thought just getting started.

I’ve learned so much, and I get excited about how there’s much, much more to learn.

Here are a few:

You can’t talk about climate without talking about the Global South… or better yet, talking WITH people living there, mostly listening. And you’ve got to use present tense, too. It’s not some projected threat. For Sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, South Asia, and a host of other places, climate change is already messing things up. International development was sort of my pathway into climate, and those realms are completely inseparable.

You meet the coolest people along the way. I’m talking about my colleagues. I’m talking about biologists. I’m talking about farmers. Sometimes climate scientists get portrayed as over-serious. Their subject matter is serious, they’re some of the coolest people I’ve met. Every time I’ve interviewed someone with an ecological research background, it’s a whole bunch of adventure stories in epic locations. On the days that climate work seems the most draining, the people are the best pick me up.

Speaking of people and experts, nobody knows EVERYTHING. The field of climate is simply too broad. Different solutions require knowledge in technology and engineering, others in biology, but also city planning and design, policy, advocacy, communication, education, food systems, animal behavior, psychology, and for me… storytelling. It’s not so much about top-level experts, but people applying their little zones of passion.

Esperanza

Esperanza showed me all the varieties of corn products she grew- from red corn to blue corn and huitlacoche. I told her she had the same name as my grandma, and she told me about how her community was able to curb deforestation.

“Our friend said that we never really understood the importance of planting trees before. We didn’t understand that we needed a large number of trees to breathe. We thought as long as we had air around, it was fine. But in order for one person to have life they need trees.

For one person, we did the math. If there are 4 or 5 people in a family, how many trees do those family members need to breathe? We counted how much we were planting, and also the rate at which we were cutting down trees. Raising awareness is a big task. But people saw there was a big need and they started planting trees.”

Shortly afterwards, she started to get emotional. “Thank you for hearing my story,” she added. “I am just one woman and I have not gotten a lot of formal education. People don’t listen to us very often.”

And yet Esperanza has worked with her neighbors, and together they’ve done more to reverse deforestation in their area than I’ve seen well-equipped, well-educated PhDs accomplish.

We often scam ourselves by thinking people need some sort of status to make a difference. Identify a need, start doing what you have to, and you’ll be surprised where that takes you.