A Working Definition of Purpose

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The path you must walk appears strange

This is one of my favorite quotes:

All of us are called to a place we have not been. Our lives were always intended to be journeys into the unknown. The invitation is both personal and mystical. No one else may fully understand what you are being called to. You may not even fully understand. The path you must walk may appear to others as strange or unreasonable, but you know there’s more going on than meets the eye.


I frequently remind myself of this blurb. Every few months I pick up my copy of Erwin McManus’ Soul Cravings to try and hunt for the page where this quote comes from. Just to get it right.

McManus captures what living with purpose is like. You know you’re living for something much bigger than yourself- something so big you can’t get your mind around it. It’s not an easy path, but it feels like what you were put on the earth to do.

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Ikigai

In short, purpose means reason. The reason you were put on this Earth. Raison d’etre in French.

There’s also a Japanese concept called Ikigai, and I mostly like the way it maps out purpose.

Purpose is the crossroads of your passion, your mission, your vocation, and your profession. It’s what you find when you find what you love to do, what you do well, what you can get paid to do, and what the world needs.

Like I said, I think this is a pretty good idea, but let me round it out a bit further with some of my own markers of purpose.

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Purpose happens when we become part of something bigger than ourselves

A big part of having a purposeful life comes when you realize it isn’t about you. Many people get to a point in their life when they realize that living for their own enjoyment is kind of a dead end. Meanwhile, people who are driven by something bigger than themselves can endure all sorts of hardship along the way.

I believe I was made to create things that help people create change, and I believe that this isn’t just a job or a hobby but a spiritual thing. I believe that compassion reflects God and brings us closer to him. For me, my faith helps connect my day-to-day actions with something bigger than the things I can see or understand.

Things like beauty, love, community, healing, and justice also go far beyond the confines of our own lives. I think we were all born with a soul that craves these things.

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Purpose happens when we connect to other people in our world

Purpose and connection go hand in hand. If you’ve ever gone through a season of loneliness or heartbreak, you’ll easily recognize how unfulfilling life is when it’s lived in isolation. On the other hand, if you’ve ever felt like you’ve found a group of people you truly belong with, you understand how important our connection to each other really is.

It’s hard to say it any better than the Xhosa concept of ubuntu- a person is a person because of other people. Part of our purpose comes from being connected to each other. My grandma never had a professional career, spent most of her 98 years at home, and lived a fairly quiet life. But at the end of her life, she was incredibly fulfilled because of her strong personal relationships.

That said, I think we do ourselves a huge favor when we realize how connected we are to people as far as the other side of the globe, or to people we seem to have nothing in common with. I’ve seen so many of my friends come to life by committing themselves to a cause. Some of the things that fill me with the most awe are sharing a moment of joy with somebody on the complete opposite side of the world.

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Purpose happens when we get to apply the passions and gifts inside of us

Ikigai does a pretty solid job at recognizing that we are born with the seeds of passions and talents. When we tend to them, they grow up with us, and that leads to the desire to excel at them and to use them to help others.

There’s also the plain fact that we also need to survive- and generally these passions and talents lead us in the direction of doing something that pays the bills! In the ideal scenario, what we’re good at, what we’re doing, and what we can get paid to do all overlap. In the real world, though, that doesn’t always happen. That’s why purpose is a pursuit!

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Pursuing Purpose

Being able to pursue purpose is a gift, but it also takes work! A life lived purposefully is a beautiful thing. Beautiful things are hardly ever convenient.

Amazingly, I have a job and a life that serves something bigger than myself, that keeps me traveling around the world, and that makes use of my creative inclinations. And it’s also my goal to help other people do something similar. To find purpose through doing work full of wonder, connection, and joy.

Every week I share one key idea that’s helped me pursue purpose and make an impact. Whether you’re at the start of your journey or just trying to make the pieces fit together a little bit better, my goal is to help you get there. Click below to sign up for this journey.

EVERY POST EVER

HANDS OPEN: FRAMING 2019

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2018 really wasn’t my year.

 

My New Years’ celebration was on the quiet side. Normally I’d think that the lack of festivities would feel like a big downer, but I was mostly just excited to turn the page on to a new year.

Last year wasn’t a good one for me, overall. There were some nice moments, but there were also times where it felt like I was being hit by a wave of bad news, and times where I felt completely stuck. Without running up a massive word count to explain how rough it was, I’ll just say that at its worst it made me wonder if my best days were all in the past.

I’m glad I chose to stay hopeful, in spite of all that, but it wasn’t the easiest thing to do. I’m ready for the restart that comes with changing the calendar.

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Picking a theme word for the year doesn’t work for me.

You know that thing people do where they pick a theme word for the new year?

Yeah, that usually doesn’t work for me.

I remember I tried it one year. I think the word I picked was generosity. I tried to practice it, but I don’t think there was anything different about that year that made it more of a “Year of Generosity” than any other.

I learned some other valuable stuff instead. I learned that life can be full, rich, and beautiful, even when difficult and tragic things happen right alongside the good times. I learned to seek fullness and not just happiness.

It was a year of fullness. Generosity? Ehhhh.

 
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Here’s how I’m framing 2019:

I’ve found it a little more helpful to think about how I’m framing the upcoming year. I want to leave enough room for surprises and unpredictability, but to still approach the year with purpose.

If starting a new year was a bit like starting a new season of a TV show, then what plot points would be the important ones from the get go? What would be the initial motivation of your main character? What themes, settings, or challenges would you tease in the trailer?

Things don’t often go the way you expect them to. The best shows deliberately throw you curveballs. But thinking in trailer-mode helps to get stuff off the ground.

 
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Starting with a pair of open hands.

This year, I’m trying to keep my hands and my heart a little bit more open, which is part of the reason why I’m approaching my goal-setting and planning a little more loosely.

Overall, I think that intentionality is a good thing, but it’s also possible to start over-planning. Last year, I really struggled with things not going according to expectations, and I know I want some more room for curiosity and wonder.

I love the image of open hands. Holding things loosely. Ready to freely give or to freely receive. 

 
 

Receiving, rather than managing, life.

Speaking of receiving, Richard Rohr says that “We tend to manage life more than just live it… we are trained to be managers, to organize life, to make things happen. That is what built our culture. It is not all bad, but if you transfer that to the spiritual life, it is pure heresy.”

“We can’t manage, maneuver or manipulate spiritual energy,” he states. “It is a matter of letting go and receiving what is being given freely.”

Managing gives me a sense of importance that isn’t always good for me. Receiving fills me with wonder. I’m aiming to do more of the latter this year.

 
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Celebrating a decade of photos every day.

2019 will be my 10th year of taking photos every single day.

It’s crazy to think that my Project 365 will be turning ten years old now. I’ve become a much better photographer over the course of a decade, but that project was never really about the photos.

It was a physical activity that paralleled what happened in my spiritual life at the same time. I decided to fully engage. I surprised myself, that year, by finding out how much wonder and adventure life had to offer. I went from like I was missing out, to feeling like I had an abundance of life.

I still have no idea how long I’ll keep going. The ten year mark might be my most opportune window to end this project in a punctuated way, but we’ll see.

 
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Getting ready for 30.

As a perk of being born on a ‘zero’ year, the 2010s will always be synonymous with my twenties. When I look back, it’s been a really good decade.

2010 began with a decision to fully commit to my faith and to treat life like a gift. In the years between then and now, I’ve made lifelong friends, I graduated, I studied in Italy and Argentina, and I lived out of a van. Then I spent time living in South Africa and Oregon, visited almost 40 more countries, worked for a bit as a teacher, finished grad school, got married, and moved to San Diego to start my dream job.

That’s a lot, but I still can’t believe the decade is nearly over. I’m hoping to end it well.

 
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Making this place our home.

One way I would love to end the decade would be to finally feel at home where I live.

I haven’t stayed in the same city for three years at all since I was a teenager. I’ve loved getting a good mix of experiences and meeting people, but in some ways that constant movement has taken its toll. I really miss feeling connected to the people around me and the place where I live. I miss having a rich sense of community, and I haven’t felt like I’ve had that in about five years.

I hoped to do that last year, but I also didn’t make that easy on myself. I think I traveled too much. I’m hoping to do more of something that is out of my comfort zone: staying put a little bit more, especially early in the year.

 
 

Balancing home and away.

While I hope to balance being home more with my love for travel, I still hope to take a few trips this year and to have them be good and meaningful ones.

We’ll be doing a family trip to Wyoming in June, to see the Tetons and Jackson Hole. That’s one of three states I haven’t been to yet. I’ll also be headed to Charleston, South Carolina for the High Water Festival. Afterwards, I’m going to look into driving to West Virginia, to get another of those three states.

If that goes well, then I might as well hit state #50 with Alaska!

I’ll likely have one work trip out of the country, and I might hope to see one more new country, since I have a streak of seeing a new country every year for the past nine. But I’ll probably be looking for a cheaper/easier one in the Caribbean or Central America.

 
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Getting outside more.

I’d hope that any other time I spend away from home is spent outdoors. I realized last year that my love of camping has really been stifled over the past two years. I’d hope to set that straight by going on a few more frequent camping or hiking or outdoor-oriented trips.

I know some friends have me already looking at Lake Tahoe next month and Yosemite later on. I wouldn’t mind rounding those out with some other campsites closer to us. Joshua Tree, the Central Coast, and even the desert sound appealing.

 
 

Making meaningful things.

Last year was a good year in terms of creative growth. I put the time into learning some new skills and programs, I figured out how to better integrate my own creative interests with my professional life, and I met a lot of people I look up to who helped me see that I was on a good track. Not every creative pursuit last year worked out the way I liked, but I learned a lot.

I’ve got one creative project in particular for this year that I can’t wait to get started on. I’ll share more about that soon enough!

 
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Moving forward.

Honestly, the bar is set pretty low in order for this year to be better than last year. Nevertheless, I’m excited for it. For the fresh starts, the second chances, and the new beginnings.

Last year taught me that hope isn’t a good feeling. Hope is a choice.

I’m choosing to invest myself in making a home, putting down roots, living open-handed, loving those around me, celebrating nature, being creative, and living a year that’ll still make me smile a decade from now.

Happy 2019.

HOPE IS MANY THINGS

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It’s December. It’s been a disappointing year.

I wonder how many people in this world feel like they’ve arrived and have nothing more to want. There’s probably a small few, but for most of us, there’s a bit more we’re in pursuit of.

I don’t think that’s a bad thing necessarily. It doesn’t have to mean we’re ungrateful for what we already have. It just means there’s more to aspire to. There are hopes we have for the future. Even if we have everything we could ever want, there are probably some hopes we have for other people. Hopes we have for our world to become a better place for all.

There are lots of hopes that haven’t yet been fulfilled.

There’s a gap in between where we are and where we want to be. This was the year I expected that gap to close a little bit more.

Looking back, that didn’t happen.

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It’s January. We have the pleasure of hosting a good friend from Korea. We ironically tried to go out for Korean food, but instead wound up getting tacos. You can always count on tacos.

The year ahead looks bright. I think this is the year I might finally plant down some roots and regain a sense of connection that’s been missing for a few years. I think this would be the year of building things that last.

People— at least the people of the online worlds where I spend too much time, often pick a “word of the year,” a theme to guide a new chapter of their life.

I toy around with the idea of choosing the word “build.” I want this to be a year of making things, building a community, of new growth.

I’m about to be reminded why I usually choose a theme word at the end of the year instead. Expectations and reality often differ. Like Kierkegaard says, you’ve gotta live life forwards, but to understand it, you need to look at it backwards.

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It’s October. Over the past ten months, the year has tailspun into becoming a big disappointment.

It started out promising enough. Many of the things I hoped to start went absolutely nowhere. I started to feel more isolated than I’ve felt in a really long time. Then I ran into a stretch of a few weeks of getting one piece of bad news after another.

I’m anxious and angry, but most of all, just sad that my world feels so empty.

I get breakfast with an old friend. I haven’t seen her a whole lot since she moved to pursue a dream full-time. She introduces us to Southern style doughnuts and a local coffee roaster. I’ve been impressed by her skill as an artist and all the progress she’s made in that pursuit. She tells me that she’s recently had to confront the real question of what life looks like if her dream doesn’t come true.

It’s not an easy question, and I felt like I was in a similar place. There are few things more discouraging than doing the same thing over and over, without seeing much change. You start to feel trapped by your circumstances. You start catastrophizing.

It feels like the path I’ve been on for years has been good to me. It’s taken me on adventures, towards people. But lately, it feels like it led me right into a dead-end.

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Back to December. I know what my word will be for the year that has passed. It seems strange to say this after such a disappointing year, but that word will be hope.

I thought I already knew all there was to know about hope, but some things you can only learn through experience.

Right now, more than ever, I believe that hope and optimism aren’t the same thing.

I’ve never really had a hard time being optimistic, to be honest. Sometimes, that’s my method of dealing with hard stuff. I believe there’s a way for things to work out, and a good chunk of the time, I’m right. I tend to believe the best about the world, and the best about people.

But hope is something else entirely.

Hope is many things.

Hope is action. It looks like going where the love is.

Hope is faithfulness. It looks like staying on that path, even when it seems to have led to a dead end. It looks like sticking with the things you’ve said ‘yes’ to, because you still believe in them.

Hope is freedom. You realize that you aren’t in control, but and when you’re willing to let go of that illusion and to let God take the reins.

Hope is imagination. Hope is seeing things that don’t exist, and doing your part to bring them to life.

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It’s August, and I’m in Haiti for work. I’m walking through a pretty lush, green forest. A decade ago, I’m told, these hillsides were barren. Most of Haiti still looks that way.

The people I meet turned out to be my greatest teachers. Every single one of them could point to a time in their life, roughly ten years ago, and could tell me of how hopeless things seemed.

“My brother died and I couldn’t stop drinking,” one man tells me.

“In this country,” a woman tells me, “you wouldn’t get to reap what you sowed.”

“My hair was turning gray while I went from one relief agency to the next, looking for some help,” says her neighbor.

Their lives today are joyful. They all talked about the incredible transformation their area had seen. How it went from barren to green. How people went from desperate to invigorated- mobilized to start farming projects, to build cisterns, to start agricultural experiments.

What propels them forward wasn’t optimism. They didn’t have much of that. It was hope. Hope allowed them to wake up for another day with the slightest possibility that things could be different. Hope allowed them to still do whatever was in their power to make their land and lives better.

I feel the nudge from God. Take note.

Hope was something I really needed in my own life. The reminders to keep showing up in spite of discouragement. The notion that the pure and good things of this life are still worth pursuing, even when they seem out of reach.

Hope is also something our world needs pretty badly these days. There are so many people fighting for justice and equality. Progress isn’t linear, and setbacks seem frequent. But hope reminds us that its worth it to be on the right side, even if it doesn’t win every battle. Even if things seem to be getting worse.

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“Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure”

– Rumi

After all, I believe that our lives are the work of a master storyteller, and what good story doesn’t have some scenes where it looks like everything’s just gonna fall apart? Sometimes, the bleaker things look, the more satisfying the story becomes in the end.

Hope is something I really need in my own life. The reminders to keep showing up in spite of discouragement. The notion that the pure and good things of this life are still worth pursuing, even when they seem out of reach.

Hope is also something our world needs pretty badly these days. There are so many people fighting for justice and equality. Progress isn’t linear, and setbacks seem frequent. But hope reminds us that its worth it to be on the right side, even if it doesn’t win every battle. Even if things seem to be getting worse.

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It’s September, and I can’t stop listening to the War and Treaty’s new album. I buy a vinyl copy and read all the liner notes. I discover something written by Michael Trotter.

“When natural disasters or the pains of social injustice or brutalities of any kind threaten your own peace of mind and civility, remember this one thing: it’s not over yet. You still have time to not only see change but to be part of the change.”

There’s still time.

That’s something I often have a hard time believing. As somebody who feels the shortness of life, I’m driven to make the most out of every minute. But I choose to believe that there is still time. That God doesn’t waste time. That the long swaths of time that seem to amount to nothing are just as saturated in purpose as those whirlwinds of change.

And in the meantime, I choose not to still appreciate the little bits of good that came my way in the past year. Even though it didn’t go the way I thought it would, there were still many sparks of joy that helped keep things afloat.

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It’s March, and I’ve ran my second half marathon.

It’s April, and I’ve gotten to go back to Italy for the first time since I studied there as a college student.

It’s September, and I’m at a conference where I get to meet some of my favorite creative heroes.

It’s June, and we’re riding bikes in Vancouver.

It’s August, and I’ve made a new friend over coffee.

It’s February, and Moviepass exists.

It’s September, and I miss Moviepass.

It’s May, and I’ve found the sweetest campsite out in the middle of nowhere.

It’s March, and I finally get to fulfill my lifelong dream of visiting Iceland.

This hasn’t been the year I had anticipated. Looking back right now, it’s hard not to think of it as a disappointing one. But I do wonder how I might look back on it with more perspective. I wonder how I might look at it ten years down the road.

It’s very possible that such a dry season might have been necessary to set up the things to come. It’s also possible that things can get worse before that happens. But hope always plays the long game.

In the meantime, I choose hope. Hope is a choice.

Hope is many things.










My 2018 List

Ranking stuff is one of my favorite parts of December. That and Christmas, you know? I’m a total sucker for just about any list that counts down the best movies, the best songs— I’ll even entertain a lis of the best GIFs of the year. I guess I get pretty curious about people’s tastes.

Of course I like playing along too, so for another consecutive year, here’s my list of favorites from 2018! And I toss albums, movies, books, and other things all on the same list, since to me, they all count as storytelling, just in different forms.

TWENTYFIVE

Akimbo

I’ve found Seth Godwin’s insights consistently helpful. Akimbo is a podcast that gives him a chance to indulge a variety of topics, but he frequently lands in the realm of marketing, work, and creativity. The show lately has gone hand in hand with his recent book This Is Marketing, which I haven’t read yet. If his podcast is any indicator, though, it’ll be a great one to learn from.

TWENTYFOUR

On The Other Side Of Freedom by Deray McKesson

Caveat: I’m not that far into the book, and yet it makes this list. My confidence is that high based on what I’ve seen and heard so far. Deray’s appearances on several podcasts definitely hammered home my interest in his book. Deray is an activist whose work has been a driving force of the Black Lives Matter movement. Despite all the opposition and hardship he’s experienced directly in the past few years, this book is fiercely hopeful.

TWENTYTHREE

Ben Howard, Noonday Dream

This isn’t my favorite Ben Howard album. It’s a more somber and moody one and takes a little while to get into. Once it sinks in, though, it’s a real solid album. Ben Howard is a master at using sound to communicate feeling, even when the meaning of the song is kept pretty enigmatic

TWENTYTWO

Boca Juniors Confidencial

Well this was a fairly upsetting year to be a Boca Juniors fan, with the Superclasico loss and the attack on the team bus a couple weeks prior. This insider series, though, serves as a pretty good consolation prize. The Netflix series follows the Argentine futbol team and offers pretty honest and vibrant look into the country’s extremely lively (sometimes too lively) fan culture.

TWENTYONE

The Daily Creative

I heard Todd Henry speak at a conference and instantly became a pretty big fan of his work. His podcast- still a pretty new project, offers one creative insight each day. The episodes are always 2-4 minutes in length, making it extremely easy to digest, but the bit of wisdom they carry is almost always really valuable. The daily release schedule is both admirable and the perfect rhythm for consuming these nuggets.

TWENTY

Kamasi Washington, Heaven and Earth

I love music that wrecks your concept of what a genre is, and Kamasi Washington does that really well, taking the roots of jazz into all sorts of creative directions. Heaven and Earth is bolder than his earlier albums, with more complicated harmonies and bolder textures. There are also hints of international influences all over this album, which I love.

NINETEEN

Kacey Musgraves, Golden Hour

High Horse was possibly the most addictive song of the summer- tongue in cheek lyrics and a playful sound to boot. The rest of the album around that hit wasn’t a let down. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy an album with so much country influence as much as I enjoyed this one, but I absolutely did and here it is on my list.

EIGHTEEN

Villains

Shea Serrano gained a whole lot of unprecedented attention after his fun, basketball-culture musings in Basketball and Other Things landed on Barack Obama’s summer reading list. What’s next? A podcast in which he analyzes the notoriety of villains from Hannibal Lecter to Regina George? Why not? It’s a wildcard concept, but he pulls it off well.

SEVENTEEN

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

An American Marriage is a book about a young, thriving couple being torn apart by wrongful incarceration. Lives are ruined, and it’s that simple. While the story’s plot is a simple unfolding of terrible events, the well-written characters turn it into a journey of empathy. I’ve seen it on a number of Best of ’18 lists and it is well deserving of that spot.

SIXTEEN

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat

I’ll be honest- even though Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat gained a ton of buzz very shortly after it arrived on Netflix, I was slower to embrace it. Mostly because I wanted to remember the title as one of the most practical and empowering cookbooks ever written, and I didn’t think it could translate into a mini-series that well. (Really, though, how do you adapt a cookbook?) It turns out that this journey to California, Japan, Italy, and Mexico is exactly how you do it.

FIFTEEN

The 1975, a brief inquiry into online relationships

For a long time, I’ve liked but haven’t loved The 1975’s music. It was good enough, but perhaps too strangely melancholic for me. Then suddenly they release a brief inquiry into online relationships, and it’s absolutely making an impression on me.

FOURTEEN

Leon Bridges, A Good Thing

Leon Bridges somehow just keeps getting better. This just might have been my most listened-to album all year, thanks especially to the tracks “Mrs.” and “Beyond.” I’m still dreaming of the chance to see Leon live someday.

THIRTEEN

Searching

If this film wasn’t good, the idea of telling a story entirely through screenshots of phones and computers would have gone down as a gimmick. Instead, it’s an innovative way to unfold a plot without taking over from the heart of the story. John Cho turns in a really great performance, but nobody thought he’d do anything else.

TWELVE

I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown

Another read that I haven’t totally finished but feel totally comfortable ranking it and ranking it high. Austin Channing Brown’s book is a must-read in my mind. Read this with an open mind, a willingness to be challenged, and a desire to be a better neighbor to those living in different skins.

ELEVEN

We Came To Win

It’s a World Cup year, which merits a second futbol related entry on this list. Gimlet releases some of my favorite podcast series, and We Came To Win was no exception, digging deep into some of the most exciting World Cup storylines from the past few decades. From the US Women’s Team’s fight for equality to the political conundrum the Congolese team landed in during the 1970’s, to Diego Maradonna’s journey from hero to villain to redemption, this podcast reminded me of why I love soccer.

TEN

Kim’s Convenience

Kim’s Convenience probably belongs on this list with a couple of asterisks, since it didn’t really debut this year. It’s currently in its third season on the Canadian Broadcasting Company, but it only became easily accessible to US audiences this past summer when it landed on Netflix. It’s a simple but smart sitcom that features a Korean-Canadian family without having to overexplain and exploit every cultural element. Appa is goals.

NINE

America Is Not The Heart by Elaine Castillo

This was the first Filipino-American novel I’ve gotten to enjoy and it was a good one. The story follows a student-activist in the late 80’s who ran into odds with the Marcos regime, who relocates to the United States in order to start a new life. Elaine Castillo’s debut as a novelist was a strong one and I look forward to where she goes from here as a writer.

EIGHT

Crazy Rich Asians

It’s hard to say something about Crazy Rich Asians and its importance that hasn’t already been stated. The triumphant feeling it gave audiences. The justice it served its characters. The heart filled performances by the cast and everyone involved. At the end of the day, it’s a well-told story built around the different ways to see a scenario.

SEVEN

Won’t You Be My Neighbor

This was one of the most moving things I’ve seen all year. Never underestimate the power of gentleness. In an era of anger, Fred Rogers’ legacy seems to be striking an especially important chord. Morgan Neville’s documentary does an especially incredible job of showing us how simple but important his message of being a good neighbor really is. 

SIX

Anderson.Paak, Oxnard

It’s been a while since I’ve loved a hip hop album as much as Oxnard. Anderson.Paak is a really talented dude on a number of different levels, and his skills as a lyricist, rapper, and singer are all on display here. Plus I detect some traces of OutKast inspired sounds and that always makes me happy.

FIVE

Factfulness: Ten Reasons Why We’re Wrong About The World and Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling

I strongly believe that in spite of all the bad news you here, the world is overwhelmingly full of good things and ordinary people working hard to make life better for each other. In Factfulness, Hans Rosling literally dedicates his last days to proving this with data. (He literally wrapped this up on the ambulance ride to the hospital he would never leave.) It’s some of the most masterful storytelling I’ve seen done with data.

FOUR

The War and Treaty, Healing Tide

This album is all heart. Reading the liner notes informed me that this album was a cry for justice and healing and loving like there’s no tomorrow. As soon as the needle hits, all that is proved immediately true. Playing Love Like There’s No Tomorrow at full volume doesn’t get any less stirring after doing so for months on end like I’ve been doing.

THREE

Black Panther

I’m sure you know why Black Panther is on this list. High on this list. That film was a triumph. Culturally rich. Visually stunning. Well performed. And Kendrick. Kudos to Ryan Coogler and Co. for capturing the world’s imagination.

TWO

How To Stop Time by Matt Haig

This book resonated with me on such a deep level. If you’ve ever found the passage of time to be a cruel thing, scary fast, or more sad than enjoyable, I think you’ll connect with this one too. And the plot is a fascinating one, featuring a secret society of folks who live a millennium and have to work as assasins to keep their identity a secret.

ONE

Ugly Delicious

David Chang certainly had himself a good year. He climbed to the top of the culinary world by one of the hardest working and most talented chefs, as well as a great storyteller. Anyone who knows how to use food as a medium to tell great stories naturally draws my liking. A couple standouts from his Netflix series were the pizza episode (where he calls out celeb chefs for thumbing their nose at Dominos, then at a Dominos delivery man for inauthentically claiming that their pizza was the best period) and the chicken episode (where he connects fried chicken to race, then switches up the context in Japan.)

OLDER LISTS

GIVING TUESDAY 2018

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Giving Tuesday is becoming one of my favorite days of the year. Designing a campaign to help Plant With Purpose raise enough funds to help 250 families out of poverty has been a blast, and I look forward to rolling it out just after Thanksgiving.

Plant With Purpose’s program works really well at a family level. Every day, I get to hear stories of families who are eating an extra meal each day, moving out of mud homes and into secure structures, and putting their sons and daughters through school. These are families who have spent years thinking that sort of thing would always be out of their reach.

It costs about $122 for Plant With Purpose to start a partnership with a new family, but any amount given goes towards that. For Giving Tuesday, a generous donor has offered to match all donations up to $17,000- meaning that we’ll be able to help an incredible amount of people around the world.

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35,958.

That is the amount of families currently working directly with Plant With Purpose across eight countries. As we seek to grow and expand, its important to look at what families experience on an individual level.

A typical family in Tanzania is a good representation of the hopes and worries of the rural, developing world that makes up 85% of global poverty. Tanzania has been affected by poverty and environmental issues quite severely, with much of its rural population being below the poverty line.