Stephen Sangil

Well water contamination is common in many areas, from coastal communities to the Willamette Valley, Rogue Valley, Central and Eastern Oregon. 93% of Oregonians rely on well water as their source of drinking water. 70% from Wells in general, and the other 23% rely on privately owned wells. The public and private owned wells are closely monitored but as we stretch to the coastal areas, east and south we get farther and farther from clean water sources and where regular maintenance and upkeep can be provided. This leaves a many to be more likely to be exposed to water contaminated with arsenic, nitrates and other fecal bacteria. Regular exposure to these contaminants can lead to an array of health issues, including cancer and miscarriages. 
A huge issue is that public wells aren't regulated by law and is up to the owner of the well to provide maintenance and upkeep, but this can be difficult in less population dense areas. 

This doesn't surprise me in the slightest. I recall back when I worked at Target back in 2014, there was someone who wanted to return bread. I remember questioning the return policy of food. Target will accept returns for 90 days, and 1 year if its a target brand item (had to fact check that).  That's great for the consumer, but because there's no plausible way to figure out if it was tampered with, so any food returned will be thrown away. EVEN if like in this case, the lady had gotten to her car in the parking lot and realized she bought the wrong brand of bread. She hadn't even left the parking lot and that bread was now destined for the garbage.  
The extra $1500 a year could easily be put into paying bills and school. The excess money that could've been used to be put towards supporting local produce and farmers markets. 
Or even for selfish purposes like going to Japan for the trip I've always want to go on, or upgrading some aquariums!  

I would like to shift my sleep patterns by trying to adjust my sleep schedule to allow me to wake up much earlier. One of my most recent struggles with being able to go to sleep early was that I would find myself not having time to do much homework when I get home. I found myself doing too much homework at night, and worse, getting into the rhythm of it and finding out that its now 3am. 
The past couple days I've tried to go to sleep 2 hours earlier instead of using time for homework like I originally wanted to, so I could wake up 2 hours earlier. I can wake myself up for the day without feeling rushed and I can exercise my brain with doing my homework done in the morning.  I noticed I was also livelier throughout the day knowing I'd be able to relax once I got home.

The first thing that came to mind was trust. Knowing the family helping growing food for the community enables one to advocate better because they personally know the source of the food. Depending on how close/knowledgeable you are with/of the local farms you have a better understanding of HOW they produce the food. You'll be more inclined to keep coming back to the source for fresh, unprocessed food.  You won't have the lingering thought of "Who suffered because of this packaging," "who/what came in contact with the food in transit" and "what kind of preservatives were used?" You can, in good conscious, continue about your day knowing the food you got can from a good source. You are also are supporting that family specifically. You are one extra person they don't have to compete against mega corps and farms. You help ensure that they will still be there tomorrow, next week, and years to come if you can advocate for their produce. We live in an era of social media so you can even easily support them by giving your local farm/food producers a shout out, pictures of how fresh their foods are. 

Any food that could be sourced by a farmers market or a co-op store to help promote and support locally sourced products. The food would be more fresh so healthier for me and not supporting mega farms that have less ethical means of raising livestock and farming practices that lead to the soil degraded. It doesn't stop the production line from happening but it does decrease my contribution to their eco footprint. 

The unspoken hospitality between community members. Growing up we never really spoke with those around my neighborhood. Maybe a few childhood friends but I never got to know the names of my neighbors. 
I recently just found out that one of our neighbors has been giving us veggies from their garden for the past 10 years and I don't even know their name...
It made me realize that the idea of neighborhood community was always present, I just never took the time to acknowledge it growing up. It left a sour taste in my mouth, but its also giving me the motivation to reach out and get to know some of my neighbors. 

It allows me the time to step back and let all the stressful thoughts flow through at the beginning of my day or once I get back from work. Rather than letting the extra thoughts and stressors build up over time, it is addressed during my mindfulness meditation.
I've noticed that the most stressful thoughts try to pry themselves back to the forefront of my thoughts while trying to relax my body. At first I found this extremely annoying, but soon realized that it was the easiest way to address each stressor individually based on which though finds its way back while trying to allow my body to come to relaxation. 
This helps ground myself back into reality and rid my thoughts of any implicit biases towards those thoughts and allows me to approach them each stressor/issue with a clear mind.