Jessica Gonzalez

"I am in the service of the earth and seek to live with the best interest of nature and the world around me at all times. I believe that every living thing is connected, and impacted by every living thing. We are a web, and my goal is to be a strong strand in that web, and help others around me to do the same."

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
651 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

630

minutes

not spent in front of a screen
UP TO

1,260

minutes

spent outdoors
UP TO

90

minutes

spent learning
UP TO

20

people

helped

Jessica's actions

Nature

Forage for My Food

I will use the 'Learn More' resources below to find where I can forage for my own food locally.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Community

Support Businesses Owned by People of Color

Racial inequity is a sustainability problem. I will support businesses owned by people of color in my community whenever I shop.

COMPLETED 17
DAILY ACTIONS

Community

Support Native Communities

I will use the resource links provided and spend 60 minutes learning about the native populations that lived in my area prior to colonization, and what I can do to support those that still exist.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Nature

Practice Gratitude for Earth

I will spend 30 minute(s) each day outside, practicing gratitude (prayer, meditation, journaling, etc.) for Earth and the nature surrounding me.

COMPLETED 21
DAILY ACTIONS

Community

Support A Sharing Economy

I will create or support a sharing economy with family, friends, and neighbors.

COMPLETED 20
DAILY ACTIONS

Community

Help Others

I will offer to help 1 person(s) who are in need each day.

COMPLETED 20
DAILY ACTIONS

Nature

Spend Time Outside

I will replace 30 minute(s) each day typically spent inside (computer time, watching television, etc.) with quality time outside.

COMPLETED 21
DAILY ACTIONS

Participant Feed

Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.

To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?

Jessica Gonzalez 10/24/2018 8:51 AM

I have to say, beside the meditative benefits of spending time outside daily in gratitude, my favorite opportunity born of this challenge has been getting to know a number of truly wonderful people as I seek to support businesses owned by people of color. I live in an extremely diverse neighborhood, and at times I can feel tension between shop owners/employees and their patrons, likely stemming from unfamiliarity and false assumptions. While opening conversations with those of different heritage than my own, I can feel bridges being formed, and I often witness others around me become more open and engaging. We are all one, and we need to make a conscious effort to open our hearts and minds and support one another fully.

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Jessica Gonzalez 10/22/2018 11:13 AM

Also, I forgot to mention that I learned that in the hills surrounding Julian (a little country town outside San Diego) there are English and black walnut trees dripping with nuts to forage, as well as many varieties of oak for acorns! Out of season right now, but blackberries grow in the area too! So much to learn about the world right around me!

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Jessica Gonzalez 10/22/2018 8:34 AM

I spent the entire weekend focused on earth-friendly activities! This challenge really has me immersed in my deep appreciation for nature and the world around me. Through gardening, nurturing the earth, spending time with a conservation group, and cooking and preserving food I've grown, I truly surrounded myself with what I love most. The challenge gets me going, and the momentum I instantly gain carries me the rest of the way!

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Jessica Gonzalez 10/16/2018 12:02 PM

Just joined Slow Food's EcoChallenge team! So glad to be a part of this endeavor, and I'm amazed each day at how this challenges has inspired and provoked new thought for me! Thank you for the reminders in my inbox, and let's keep this thing going!

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Community Support Native Communities

Indigenous speaker and activist Winona LaDuke says that, "most indigenous ceremonies, if you look to their essence, are about the restoration of balance — they are a reaffirmation of our relationship to creation. That is our intent: to restore, and then to retain balance and honor our part in creation." Why is balance important to sustainability?

Jessica Gonzalez 10/10/2018 2:20 PM

I feel that had we as a society made greater strives toward regular balance early on, we wouldn't be in the sustainability predicament we are currently in. A good deal of the challenges and devastation we currently face stems from following pursuits that swing to greatly in one direction, often based on greed and self indulgence, and selfishly leading to imbalances for the world around us. Practicing awareness, conscious appreciation, self reflection, and connectivity can prevent us from causing the harmful consequences of imbalance.

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Jessica Gonzalez 10/10/2018 2:16 PM

I am beginning to feel a more connected sense of purpose through these actions, and am ready to revisit them to swap out for some new ones as some of the ones I began with become more habitual. :)

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Nature Forage for My Food

Amongst the motivations for foraging are: a source of food; means of income; connecting with nature; cultural tradition; or transmitting "local ecological knowledge, and a means for stewarding local and native plant populations" (McLain et al. 2012, 13). Which of these would be your chief motivation and why?

Jessica Gonzalez 10/10/2018 2:14 PM

I am most motivated by the pursuit to steward local native plant populations as the urban sprawl that is San Diego county becomes more and more heavily populated. Denser human populations reduce wild spaces and increase the "need" for ever-growing commercialism. I wish to celebrate and embrace what grows naturally around us instead, and foster and preserve pockets of wild growth, not only for our benefit, but also that of native wildlife so they may feed and raise their young in natural habitats.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Community Support Businesses Owned by People of Color

Keen Independent Research Foundation conducted a recent study that highlights the disparities in the availability of city contracts and loans to businesses, and how this disparity correlates to owners as people of color. The study showed that Minority businesses enterprises (MBEs) are more likely to have difficulties in receiving loans or city contracts. In what ways can you address systemic racism?

Jessica Gonzalez 10/08/2018 11:04 PM

I'd like to recognize and patronize new businesses in my extremely diverse neighborhood as they open to increase the confidence from local banks and city planners that this growth is something our neighborhoods want! I love cultural immersion and what I gain in cultural awareness from the personal connections I make, and I hope to bridge the horrible canyons between our many cultures in what was once coined the melting pot of America.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Community Support A Sharing Economy

What benefits does the sharing economy offer to your own life? To your neighbors' and community members' lives?

Jessica Gonzalez 10/08/2018 10:59 PM

This one is simple for me - sharing helps me to know that I am not alone in the good fight! Hopefully sharing helps those I share with feel the same. Also, sharing allows me to give love in what to me is the purest form: I made this and I want to give it to you, because I love you.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Nature Practice Gratitude for Earth

Kathleen Dean Moore says that a sense of gratitude leads to a sense of moral obligation. Do you agree? How do we cultivate a sense of gratitude as individuals, and as a society?

Jessica Gonzalez 10/08/2018 10:57 PM

I actually struggle with a profound sense of gratitude. I do feel that as a result I lack an in-the-moment grasp on the greatness of our world. I strive to check in more frequently and harness a sense of true gratitude for moments of purity, or reflection, or just realizing that there is a moment worth mentally cataloguing.

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