2021 Year in Review

Hi folks,

How do you sum up a year like 2021? All the chaos and all the feels. All the joy, growth, creativity and tender moments. All the hope and helplessness. It feels like an impossible task, but nonetheless, it is important to recap and give thanks, even if it means digging into discomfort.

How we live

We bought e-bikes this year, so now our community feels bigger, as we can zip around San Diego, go to the beach, visit outdoor cafes, enjoy nature with ease, and not deal with traffic and parking.

With real estate prices going through the roof, the home we rented in North Park was put on the market and we had to move in March. We moved about a mile east, to a Spanish-style 2-bedroom bungalow with hardwood floors, built-ins, a small front and back yard and a garage. We signed a 2-year lease, so hopefully we have broken the pattern of needing to move every year. We converted the garage into Steph’s office, and spent a few weekends making a dining room table and coffee table out of a 10’ slab of sycamore.

On the whole, our days have been about the same as last year.? Brandon gets up around 6 to pray, read and write, hits the gym and is then on calls in the office, or at an outdoor cafe working. Steph gets up a couple hours later and follows a similar cadence. After dinner, we curl up on the couch for a movie or a couple episodes of our beloved Ted Lasso, Handmade’s Tale or SNL.? Brandon always falls asleep on the couch mid-way. :)

We continue to deepen our racial justice work with Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ). Steph is on our chapter’s leadership team and Brandon took two powerful programs with the ManKind Project, Unpacking Power, Privilege and Difference (UPPD) and Waking Up to Whiteness (WUTW). Because of its power in opening white hearts to the lived experience of our BIPOC brethren, Brandon has begun the path to become a facilitator of WUTW.

Steph is forming a new women’s circle and is about to start a two year program at Hogwarts. Steph continues to sing with her chorus - after a year of Zoom rehearsals, they are back to in-person outdoors. Brandon remains active in the ManKind Project, Business for Good, Google Vitality Lab, Global Purpose Leaders, and the Burnham Center’s Civic Engagement communities.

We also spent a good deal of time with our dear friends and City Heights neighbors Ted Frelke and Arezou Ghane, and hosted a few outdoor gatherings, including Brandon’s birthday at the beach and a Halloween adventure - pumpkin carving, bike ride, karaoke and costume contest.

Work

Steph continues her leadership coaching and facilitation work with Move the Crowd and Torch and is pivoting to a retreat-based women’s leadership business.

Brandon has been building Unity Lab. It’s a small remote team of 4 (COO / Heidi is in Kansas City, head of sales / Tim is in LA, and head of marketing / Dave? is in Costa Rica), that has accomplished a great deal this year, including a nice write-up in Forbes. Unity Lab works with great clients to equitably develop and retain their people no matter where they work. The peer-learning programs help people activate their purpose at work, find their unique connection to the company’s mission and build foundational leadership and team skills.?

Brandon is also putting the finishing touches on a new book, Purpose Work Nation, that comes out in February. It asserts that our nation is deeply ill, that all sectors of society, with the exception of the private sector, have proven themselves incapable of addressing polarization, climate change, economic inequality, and systemic racism. The task now falls squarely upon the private sector to realize the promise of our nation.

Health

We are in good health, having been eating well, getting massages, and doing a couple cleanses.? Stephanie has been deepening her mind-body work, which has drastically reduced daily stress and chronic issues of the past.? Brandon lowered his cholesterol and blood pressure, bringing them back down into the normal ranges by adding more cardio, smoothies and limiting red meat.

Brandon’s stepdad, Dennis, has dealt with numerous health challenges, and continues to regain his strength and stamina. Our family friend, Bill Anderson, who Brandon’s parents have cared for in Mariposa, passed away in November from natural causes. They wrote his obituary. Our cat, Kizzy, caught cryptococcus and has been on antifungal medicine for 6 months. We’re hoping he’s fully recovered soon despite hating to have to take his medicine.

Travel

We had three fun adventures this year, in addition to several smaller jaunts to Mariposa/Yosemite to visit Brandon’s parents, Nancy and Dennis, LA to visit Steph’s Uncle Don’s family, to Tucson for Thanksgiving, camping with Ted and Arezou, and to Tecate, Ensenada, and Tijuana.

The first adventure was to Flagstaff, Sedona and the Grand Canyon in May. We visited the Booth’s in Flagstaff (Dave and Brandon were fraternity brothers at U of I, and Dave is now working with Unity Lab) and spent a couple days camping and stand-up paddleboarding down the Colorado River.? It was fun, humbling and majestic, with much water fighting and knocking each other over into Wim Hof worthy cold water. We then camped on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, went on some awesome hikes and enjoyed the always transcendent sunsets.

In August, we did a month-long cross country roadtrip through Zion, Yellowstone, Crazy Horse, Black Hills, and Badlands. A bison walked right past our car in Yellowstone, with the window open, and Steph could have reached out and touched it, which she didn’t of course. Brandon had Rocky Mountain oysters in Cody, WY. We then went on a whistle-stop tour to see friends and family in Wisconsin (Matt Eigel and Nate Ansell), Chicago (Matt Zieba and Andy Sharpee), Lafayette (Bruce and Jill Thompson and Jacqui Carlson), Dayton (Jeremy Long), Scranton (Pat Sandone), Greenwich (Bruce, Terry, Jamie, Nate and Chris Kimball), New York (Chris and Frances Pollak, Stephen Markman), New Jersey (Ed West, George and Rachel Maslovsky), Maryland (Phyllis and Bruce Kranicz), Virgina (Mike and Sue Schar, Nick Bryan), DC (Alan Barber, Kyle Hauptman and Sara Morse), Dallas (Lauren Hill and family) and Tuscon (Helen Peele, Justin and Allison Skoda, Jared Skoda, Joel Skoda, Kerry Peele, Carla, Jim and Catrina Vaughn-Deeds).

There was an 8-day stretch that was particularly impactful. We experienced what, in retrospect, was a descent into our nation’s history of slavery, Jim Crow and Civil Rights, which Brandon wrote about at length, as we traveled from Maryland, to DC, Nashville, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma.

In November, we visited Brandon’s parents in the Florida Keys, kayaking through mangroves, taking in a turtle hospital, dolphin research center, bird sanctuary, and Bahamian historical center. We gorged ourselves on seafood. Due to Dennis’ health, he couldn’t drive the car back to California, so Brandon flew back out to Florida to drive the car and their dog, Jack, back home, listening to an audiobook, The Dawn of Everything, that fundamentally changes how we understand Western civilization and our nation’s history.? Meanwhile, Steph enjoyed a full 4 days at home alone for the first time in a year.? When two people live and work from home 24/7, time alone can do wonders to rejuvenate the relationship ;)

It’s been a full, hard, fun, chaotic, disheartening and creative year. More gray hairs and wrinkles. More questions and possibilities. We’re grateful we survived, grew personally and professionally, and deepened our marriage. While we would of course love greater ease and peace in 2022, it would be foolish to think that the coming year will be any less challenging. May you all continue to find the strength to endure, grow, and savor the many gifts of this unique moment in history.

With love,

Steph and Brandon