And so it begins... another wondrous year in nature.
Who will be joining us on this great adventure?
Nature photo of the day: shadow play - Csermely, Cheryl and the cherry tree.
tomorrow is already here where we are outside standing still in front of the sun like two foolish gnomes blending into one bursting forth with preposterous madness as we jump eagerly from one insane world into another - Cheryl M.
What can I say? I’m happy that 2024 is in the past and everything that lies before us is new and untrampled. Yet, seeing the current state of humanity, some of us will eagerly find ways to trample across another section of time, land, garden and forest…
If you are reading the Daily Dose of Nature, that is most certainly not you!
And we are extremely thankful that you are still here, reading our words and glancing at images of a life and home we love so dearly.
One of our goals with curating the Daily Dose of Nature is to encourage more people to spend more time outside the standard four walls and rediscover their sense of wonder and appreciation of the natural world.
In doing so, there is something they may have to give up (for minutes or hours a day) and it is only to their benefit. To truly, honestly, deeply spend more meaningful time in nature, the thing one must give up is their addiction/attachment to technology. At the bare minimum, for the time they are outdoors. It’s also wise to disconnect indoors too, for your health and well-being affects everybody and everything.
Consider this: “Americans spend 92 percent of their time indoors.”
And this: “Other research discovered that 20 minutes outside three times a week is the dose of nature that had the greatest effect on reducing an urban dweller’s levels of the stress hormone cortisol.”
And this: “20 Minutes - That’s the amount of time you should spend outside in nature, like a neighborhood park, three times a week. Hopman led a new study that concluded that something as painless as a 20-minute stroll through a city botanical garden can boost cognition and memory as well as improve feelings of well-being. “But,” she said, “we found that people who used their cell phone on the walk saw none of those benefits.”
It all comes from the same article which you can read here.
But, this makes me sad.
20 minutes? 3 times a week?
Does it really feel like enough for you as an adult? Is it enough time spent outdoors for a curious child who is just beginning to learn about the world?
Who are we to take care of the Earth, when we can’t even find the time, energy or patience to sit, observe and take care of the outdoor spaces amongst us?
What’s more, how do we expect nature writers/poets/artists to make a living from promoting nature (something the algorithm certainly does not favor) and living lightly on the land?
That’s where You come in!
It’s readers like you, who care greatly for the Earth and the kind words that praise her who can make a grand difference.
See, we live in a remote area of northern Romania where farming and tourism reign. But tourists have been in decline since 2020, because of the you-know-what. And because of being so close to the Ukraine border and the you-know-not going on there, foreigners have been spending their well-earned vacations elsewhere.
Which challenges us to be more creative in our online (and offline) endeavors.
For this reason, we have chosen to keep a paywall on a majority of our photo-poem-prompt-posts, as a way to sustain our very simple life on the hill, in a two-room wooden house without running water.
Sunday posts will always be for free - anything above and beyond that keeps us warm by the fire, keeps our pantry full, and our hands and minds ready to create. For that, we are immensely grateful.
If you are not yet a subscriber, you can become one at any moment.
If you are sitting on the fence about pledging your generous support, I’d encourage you to read the words of the Mad Farmer that really struck a chord with us, as I also lost my job, in part due to AI last March — it’s only a matter of time before we realize it affects us a.l.l. :
To borrow a term coined by Hadden Turner, this page will be a ‘refuge of authenticity.’ I will never use a chatbot or AI software to write or edit my work, except spell check - everyone who knows me knows I can’t spell worth a dam (my wife thinks it’s some kind of anti-authoritarian complex, and I hope she’s right). I have several reasons for this, not least of which is that I think these robots represent the end of free thought and the cannibalization of culture. Sometimes, I find myself wondering if some of the interactions I have on this platform aren’t with bots. Paywalling pieces is a way to ensure that real people are gathering and discussing in this metaphorical community, and I’m not wasting time talking to a chatbot. I do enough of that grading my students’ homework.
Authenticity, in the coming years, is something that will definitely come into question.
I can assure you, we are authentically living a simple life with the highest regard for nature, and our words will never be corrupted by a non-human pretending to have beautiful experience in nature. In the words of a summer workshop attendee, “With all due respect, I could never live like you.” And he meant it with the utmost kind sincerity. Then he chose to move to Breb with his wife too.
You never know where you will find yourself, or where life will move you. But wherever you are, please find yourself in nature. Life is much happier there. The wild animals and elementals might just be happy to reconnect with you too.
If you’d like to hear from us more often, and to read more of our poems, becoming a subscriber is the best way to receive. If it’s more pictures you are after, you can also find us on Instagram.
If conditions are tight, please connect with us and we’ll gift you with a full subscription for a year. After all, there will be trading in the future, better start practicing it today.
As for the journal prompt of the day:
If I could be anywhere outside right now, where would I be?
Would you be close to home, or far, far away? Is the sun shining, or the snow glistening? Is the water warm or cold? Is the wind blowing, is the fruit ripe? What do you see?
In your mind, go to a happy place, real or imagined, and write about how good you feel there. Feel free to share your vision in the comments below.
Thank you for making it this far into 2025!
Your attention deserves a reward, so we’d like to offer you an image that is usually for paying subscribers only — our December photo quilt.
As well as our 2024 photo quilt, an outdoor review of sorts in which you can gradually notice the seasons, the flowers, the sun, and the moon pass by.
Write to you again in a few rises of the moon.
With gratitude,
Cheryl
