Dreaming of Spring 🌼

Hello me Hearties!

On the tour with Lina, in Phoenix... she saw this beautiful bush full of flowers — an oleander — and got inspired to do a quick, spontaneous photoshoot there together. This was right after Meet & Greet; the sun was less fierce, and the air carried a nice warmth that reminded us Spring was here. After having been through all kinds of weather on this tour, feeling warm air was comforting and soothing! Flowers are such a beautiful sight too... I love how they can bring color and beauty to any piece of architecture or landscape. After weeks spent in venues or parking lots, any patch of green brings me so much joy!

As much as I love cities for their cultural and gastronomic offerings, as well as their history and charm, I think I'm truly much more of a nature girl — someone who loves spending time outside, watching plants grow and nature thrive. Some of my all-time favorite TV programs are nature documentaries like Our Planet or BBC Earth. I've learned so much from them, and they take you to places you might never go on your own. To me, nature shows the real balance of life — how species live together in a very well-curated system that enables all of them to survive and find their own patch of sunlight, water, and food.

I think it's such a pity that part of humanity believes we don’t belong to this system, that we're somehow above it, and that nature and animals are here to serve us. That’s so not true to me. We are natural beings, part of a system we still rely on (for food, medicine…), and we're not above it just because we can exploit it. I wish we could have found a way to develop and evolve without damaging our planet the way we do. I'm also vegan for this reason — trying not to take part in what pollutes and deteriorates our environment. Breeding cows, for instance, requires SO much water. Not to mention the cruelty in all industrial farms.

I love meat, fish, seafood, cheese… but if this is the price that comes with it — if my personal pleasure costs so much to something I find so beautiful — I’d rather renounce it. And I've found a lot of pleasure and taste in vegan food, which isn’t just “salad” as many people believe! 😄

On that note, I’m not a perfect vegan, and being perfect isn’t the goal. A lot of people write to me saying they’re vegetarian and feel bad that they can’t go fully vegan. But honestly — giving up meat completely is already A LOT. Even reducing meat consumption is a big step. And just thinking about it, becoming more aware of the reality of our food industry, already makes a difference. So many people will never question their habits; so many will never care. Any step is a step — and it helps!

And if you’re someone who loves meat, eats it every day, and doesn’t want to change anything — know that vegans, vegetarians, and all the others who sometimes make different choices are helping balance things out.

Also, I’m not saying the world should stop eating meat altogether — first of all because it’s not possible or realistic, and second because we do need a variety of diets to keep food production sustainable. If everyone wanted strawberries and avocados year-round, worldwide, that would create a massive environmental issue too. So yes, we need meat-eaters and people with regular diets. The problem is just the scale of meat production, which creates major issues in terms of water, air, and land pollution.

Okay — I think I got carried away opening up about this topic! 😄 But nature is something very dear to me, and I wanted to share all of this with you.

See you on Sunday for our Live Hangout at 18:00 CET / 12:00 EDT!
With love,
Clémentine