This is What Life is SUPPOSED to Be Like!

I was walking in the mountains above Davoli, having one of those "how is this actually my life" moments when it dawned on me: the simple way people live here (in Calabria, and especially in smaller villages like Davoli) is how we were meant to live.

People grow their food. They share the abundance. They live in the houses that already exist rather than discarding the old ones to build bigger and better houses. They don't need constant stimulation. They live by the seasons. They don't try to control nature.

Where Did We Go Wrong?

Somewhere along the way, in developed countries and larger cities, people got greedy. They began to shun old things and started building bigger, more fantastic houses and buildings, resulting in overcrowding and sky-high housing prices.

They began to realize they could have anything they wanted, practically on demand. They forgot how to be patient and wait for things to come to them.

The mantra became more, more, more and faster, faster, faster.

But at what price? People began working more and more to have enough money to pay for the lives of convenience they'd concocted. And so they worked so much, they no longer had time to spend time with their families or enjoy the things they once did.

They created their own hamster wheel. Always working to get somewhere they never would reach. All the while, creating more pollution and waste that was destroying the planet.

Getting Off the Wheel

Part of the reason I decided to move to Italy was that I never bought into that workaholic lifestyle. I never saw the point of working so hard that I couldn't actually enjoy my life.

And as my community has gotten smaller and smaller (Davoli has an estimated 600 inhabitants; I think it's far less!), the enrichment I experience has increased hundredfold.

Life here is slow. There's always time to stop and have a coffee with a friend. Everywhere you look, there's land. It's not claimed by the government or being developed by a hotel franchise. Much of the food we eat, we grow or raise. Meat comes from our cousin the butcher, not a meat plant overcrowded with sick animals.

Even though Soverato's no metropolis by any stretch of the imagination, I was constantly annoyed by the dirtbikes that illegally roared through the streets, the sound reverberating off the tall buildings. The only sounds I hear in these mountains are the occasional dog bark and chickens squawking.

Here, in my new life, there is peace. The sky is unaffected by light pollution and not blocked by tall buildings, so I get an unadulterated view of the stars and the moon.

It makes me sad that humanity, in an effort to improve itself, has gotten so far away from a pure and whole life. But personally, I am happy that I now get to experience this kind of life!