A few weeks ago, I was honored to be featured by MovedLA–a Los Angeles-based company that focuses on expressing creativity and freedom through movement (dance).
I really enjoyed this interview as it gave me a chance to pause and look back at how transformative the past few years of my life have been. This pause we’re all experiencing is gift in that has allowed us to reconnect with ourselves and our passions.
This Monday we are super excited to introduce you to a true gem of a human. He is the absolute embodiment of the phrase “practice what you preach”, making it his mission to be a source of love, light, and inclusion for everyone he meets. He truly believes in leaving the world a better place than how you found it. He works hard to build communities into safe havens for the people who live there, investing time and compassion with the homeless community to help share their stories, as well as provide endless support to others in need of a little love and light. His mission to bring people together and try to make things suck less is something we are definitely feeling right now. We love that he uses his humor, his artistic abilities, and his ever-expanding network of family he builds in the new people he meets, to bring love, laughter, joy, and belonging to everyone. Please read on about this incredibly special, inclusive, fun-loving spirit, Sean Coolidge!
Moved LA: How would you describe yourself?
Sean: Hi Moved LA! Thank you for allowing me to share my story. Let’s see…I’d describe myself as a Johnny Appleseed, always on the go, always happy to help, and always hoping to bring a smile to someone’s day–but instead of planting apple trees, I plant seeds of joy!
My day job is that of a visual problem solver (User Experience Designer), therefore I’m always approaching life with a simple perspective of “how can we make things suck a little less”.
When it comes to helping others, I strive to do my best to guide them with the light and help them find their way in dark times and troubled waters–a spiritual lighthouse of sorts.
Moved LA: What’s your story? How did you get started? What do you do?
Sean: I grew up in beautiful San Diego, California, and the journey of life has planted me in so many wonderful cities, including Flagstaff (AZ), Portland (OR), San Francisco, and Santa Ana (CA).
Santa Ana holds a special place in my heart, as it was there where the importance of community became abundantly clear to me. Not too long after moving there, I asked myself what more could be done to help bring this community together. During the ten years spent in Santa Ana, I served as my community’s HOA President, helped start a neighborhood art walk, organized pub crawls, served on several city and community boards, was appointed to a commission by the city council, and with the help of some very talented and good-hearted friends, started a farmers’ market.
By getting involved in the city that I lived, it allowed me to help build and shape my community for the better. Every endeavor was backed with a simple hope to bring people together by creating a strong sense of safety and belonging.
As a child of mixed-race parents, I have always understood the feeling of isolation associated with “not belonging”. Trevor Noah wrote in his awesome book Born a Crime, that growing up a bi-racial child was extremely difficult because he never belonged to a specific circle, and yet it granted him the perspective of the outsider always looking in–those words resonated with me to my core.
Not only did growing up on the outside of so many circles afford me a broader perspective and greater appreciation for all the circles, but it also helped me better empathize with those who are marginalized and don’t necessarily fit neatly into one of society’s generic molds. And in recent years, that understanding has sprouted a new passion to help others feel like they too belong.
Throughout my travels, I always make it a point to engage with the local homeless population. They can often be a terrific window into a city’s true nature. If the general mood and tone of the conversations are upbeat, these places tend to be good cities where the homeless are cared for. A few dollars to help them make it through the day, or even better, a meal of their choice is a small price to pay for some of the best and most-interesting life advice.
These souls have lived incredible lives with so much perspective to offer if only more of us took the time to listen. Marty, a man I once spoke with in Downtown Austin said that he feels that most of society isn’t afraid of the homeless (individual), but rather what homelessness as a whole represents to them. “How many of them are one paycheck, one bad decision, one bad day away from being in my shoes?”
With little or nothing to lose, people like Marty see the world without a certain type of fear that gnaws away at our egos–a fear of losing our prized possessions, damages our reputation, or invalidates our job titles.
When I photograph these beautiful souls living on the streets of our America, I hope to share their stories and I want these people who are without a place to call home to no longer be invisible. These men and women, who were once children like the rest of us, dreamt of adult lives filled with joy and laughter, and perhaps an opportunity to share their gifts with the world.
Making homelessness suck less is something I hope to dig deeper into in the coming years.
Moved LA: If you were a cartoon character who would you be?
Sean: “My name is Sean, I have just met you and I love you!” Definitely Dug–the simple, yet genuine and loving dog from the Pixar movie Up. All his heart desires is to spread love and joy while searching for his pack/tribe.
I simply adore dogs. They are such amazing creatures in that they somehow know that they’re not meant to be here for a long time, but definitely a good time. We can learn a lot from them by simply letting love into our hearts and allowing forgiveness for others to happen more quickly.
Moved LA: If you could give everyone one piece of advice about living with more intention, what would it be?
Sean: This powerful quote by Stephen R. Covey–one that I keep close to me, especially when doing my best to show up as a compassionate witness for others:
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply”.
Stephen R. Covey
In a time where we can communicate with almost anyone, at any time, across the planet, I often wonder if anyone is truly listening.
It’s true that many of us are simply not good listeners. We end up not hearing the pain that others bring to us and we often go right into “fix mode”, or worse, we somehow manage to make the conversation about us. I admit that this was definitely how I reacted in a past lifetime.
Listening to understand can also help people agree on the problem before working to find a mutually-beneficial solution. But also, sometimes people just need to vent–they don’t need you to fix anything, they just need to be heard. If you can slow your brain down to simply listen, you will open yourself up to even greater life experiences.
My best advice to anyone wanting to start becoming a better listener is to first acknowledge the person sharing this moment with you (ex: “Thank you for feeling comfortable enough to share this with me.”). Then ask that person how you can best show up for them (ex: “I’d like to know how I can do my best for you in this moment–are you needing someone to vent to, my opinion on this matter, or something else?”).
Moved LA: What are your top three favorite things to do when you need to relax and have fun?
Sean: A cortado in the morning at a local coffee shop is such a wonderful opportunity to start your day off with joy. I love engaging with the baristas and seeing them as humans and someone I can have a genuine interaction with (versus it being a quick and impersonal transaction). A barista’s spark and happiness is better than any caffeine fix to start my day off right. And add dogs to the “morning coffee + barista” equation and I am in heaven for sure!
Before COVID-19, another one of my most favorite things was to sit at a bar, especially Rendezvous here in Flagstaff (located one block off historic Route 66) and simply allow for the opportunity for an organic and authentic conversation to happen. I so love engaging with fellow nomads and hearing their stories of adversity and triumph–stories that ultimately allowed for this moment of human connection and interaction to transpire and simply be all that it is.
And at the end of a long workday, I love strolling aimlessly during golden hour and allowing all of my senses to run wild and take notice of all the changes happening at this majestic time of the day. There is simply so much beauty to take in–seeing all the different types of birds flock back to their nests, feeling the warmth of sunlight making its final stretch of the day–weaving its way between the leaves, trees, and buildings, the sounds of families laughing and coming together, the smell of dinner being prepared, and taking notice of how the shadows will slowly transform the world into beautiful and still darkness. Simply put, it feels as if everything in the universe is coming home.
I feel most present at this time. Even when everything is changing so quickly, it’s a place of mindfulness and appreciation, and there is a lot of happiness and joy for me in these fleeting moments–and definitely my most favorite time to have a camera in hand!
Moved LA: What is up next for you and your company?
Sean: I am honored to say that I have been selected as one of the recipients of a grant with “Tulsa Remote” in Tulsa, Oklahoma. As a privately-funded economic/community development program, their goal is to attract remote workers to experience Tulsa and help this wonderful city continue to grow and prosper with our unique set of talents, skills, and experiences.
Leaving my current city (Flagstaff, Arizona) has been exceptionally challenging because I truly love it here, however, I also feel that we grow the most when we take ourselves out of our comfort zones. Having something like ten mailing addresses over the past four years has been somewhat of an adjustment, but looking back at each place where I have lived, there has been so much positive growth in my life because I chose the more challenging path.
I’m a firm believer that the best investments you’ll ever make in this lifetime are the ones you make in bettering yourself, and it starts by holding ourselves more accountable by starting our days with these three questions:
“Who am I?, What do I want?, and Where am I going?”
I feel that it’s vital for us to constantly define and redefine what “success” looks like for each and every one of us. So many of us get caught up in routines and obligations and ultimately end up down a path where we’re not happy and we don’t know who we are anymore, how we got there, and where to go next.
If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that we should plan for nothing but prepare for everything. All we have is now, and living a life full of expectations will certainly lead us to a destination surrounded by disappointment.
Life gets infinitely better when we simply start showing up for it with full intentions and little or no reservations. Ultimately, at the end of our story, what we did in this lifetime will matter, but it’s what we did to inspire others that will matter most.