Intentional - A holistic approach to building and maintaining a sustainable lifestyle

Copyright © 2024 Jessica Ullyott

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, email [email protected].

This book was created to help inspire and give general information. The activities, recipes, ideas, procedures and suggestions are intended to supplement, not replace, the advice of a trained medical professional or other agency. The author and publisher disclaim any liability arising directly or indirectly from the use of this book.

Illustrations by Devonie Biasella

Acknowledgements

Thank you to my Heavenly Father and Creator for giving me a spirit of power and love. Thank you to my lovely friends Alex, Natalia, Victoria, Rachelle, Margo, my mom Marcia, and my husband Chris who all helped me immensely with editing. Thank you to my lifelong friend Devonie for her beautiful illustrations. Thank you to Dr. Stan Rodriguez for inviting me into your community and teaching me Kumeyaay stories and traditions. Lastly, thank you to all the people of Project Dragonfly, Miami University in Ohio and San Diego Wildlife Alliance for creating such an amazing program to inspire me to create Nature Needs SD and all I hope to accomplish by sharing this book.

It is with utmost respect that I would like to recognize that the land where my home sits and many of the nature spaces referenced in the book exist on Kumeyaay, 'Iipay (Diegueño) and Payómkawichum ancestral homeland. It is from this land that I draw so much inspiration. From these original stewards of the land, we are able to learn from their example of how to protect and preserve the unique biodiversity that exists here.

Book Dedication

This book is dedicated to my children and the next generation of changemakers.

We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.

-Native American Proverb

Introduction

My interest in sustainable living began during my teaching career. As a high school biology teacher I would inevitably talk about our environment, and the human impact upon it. In San Diego County, we live in a biodiversity hotspot. A biodiversity hotspot has high rates of plant and animal diversity and richness, but is experiencing extreme losses to its original vegetation.1

To further emphasize the problem to my students that we have with plastic, I created the bag monster which had 150 plastic bags attached to it. My student’s faces would glow red with embarrassment and they would laugh at me as I would run through the halls yelling Don’t be a bag monster!. I also found myself volunteering for a lot of environmental stewardship opportunities. It was here that I met many of the amazing organizations that exist to restore natural spaces in San Diego County. I found a unique graduate program called Project Dragonfly where throughout my masters program, I sought to bring meaningful experiences with nature to my students to build a sense of place which is the feeling of being connected to your community.

In one of my classes, I was doing a group project and we brainstormed this really great concept: You need nature and nature needs you. This quickly became my mantra and I was excited to show people how much they could do for nature and how they could mutually benefit. This is all well and good but I was still missing a big part of what it means to connect to nature.

One morning, I pulled my car into a dusty parking lot and walked up to a farm house converted into a classroom. Inside there were many of my classmates and Richard Bugbee, a Payoomkawichum (Juaneño/Luiseño) Indian from northern San Diego County. He was going to be teaching my graduate class about plants and people, specifically land management. I remember he said, I really don’t like the term ‘land management.’ I prefer to think of this as a relationship with the land. That was when it clicked for me. It wasn’t about trying to manage nature or figure out how I could help nature, it was about developing a relationship with nature. I also learned that in the Kumeyaay language, there is no specific word for nature. Instead, maat’ means ‘from the earth and refers to both land and body. This intimate connection to the land really began to change how I looked at everything outside. This tree is as much a part of this land as I am, this rock is just as much a part of this land as I am. We are one.

In 2021 I graduated and decided to take some time away from teaching and focus on raising my two boys. However, this new appreciation for fostering a relationship with nature continued to grow. I found myself telling everyone I knew about ways that they could connect to nature and create a mutually beneficial relationship. Unable to contain myself, I created the website NatureNeedsSD.org to help guide people to nature spaces and environmental stewardship opportunities. The idea that was brainstormed years before over a Zoom call with classmates (nature needs you and you need nature) had become a reality.

While I was writing this book, I started reading the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (you will see this referenced many times throughout the book). I had read some of her writings about traditional ecological knowledge, and was inspired by her definition of sense of place, but this book was different. In it she explains how she has learned to weave her indigenous teachings and scientific knowledge she has acquired as a botany professor into something beautiful. She uses the analogy of asters and goldenrods working together to support each other. She says, What would it be like, I wondered, to live with that heightened sensitivity to the lives given for ours? To consider the tree in the Kleenex, the algae in the toothpaste, the oaks in the floor, the grapes in the wine; to follow back the thread of life in everything and pay it respect? Once you start, it’s hard to stop, and you begin to feel yourself awash in gifts (pg. 150). This was exactly what I wanted to accomplish and then give my readers the tools to make this happen.

While I was working on this book it took me a very long time to come up with a title. Having never written a book before, I guess this is probably normal, but I was in constant ideation. One night while sleeping on the floor of my sick toddler’s bedroom, I had a revelation. I thought about what the main theme of my book was. The answer was: Intentionality. Some of us were lucky enough to grow up camping or with parents that helped foster a connection to nature, but many have not. Regardless of where you are beginning on the spectrum of sustainability, we all have to make intentional choices to do what is best for the Earth and our families, and it all comes down to being intentional.

I believe that finding your connection to nature will inevitably lead to you making intentional choices that are beneficial to not only your family, but also the Earth. Intentionally choosing to live sustainably, should be something that we can all agree on. It shouldn’t matter your race, ethnicity, gender, or religion. We all live on this planet, and by learning to live together for a shared connection with nature I believe that we are going to heal the Earth together. My hope is that this book inspires and generates hope for the future of our planet.

Setting The Tone

Every day when walking my son a few blocks over to school, I see trash on the sidewalk. Some days I pick it up as we walk, throwing it into the bottom of the stroller. Other days I just walk by it. After a while I started feeling frustrated with people day after day littering when there are plenty of trash cans on the sidewalk. But one day, as I was buckling my kids in the car, I watched two snack wrappers fly out of the car and into the busy street. Unable to retrieve them, I watched with a sad heart knowing that I had just given someone else the job of picking it up. How many other times had this happened and I was unaware? How many times have I lost something out of my pocket, left something at the park