Modern migration from big cities to small villages is the key to sustainability and happiness.
Transformed by the pandemic wake-up call, we decided to spend our August holidays back at our roots. A tiny small village in the Basilicata region – South Italy – immersed in nature and silence. Cows’ mooing, dogs barking, or the wind was the only sound.
Travelling in the middle of the night along the woods, we met a family of porcupines who was crossing the road, spines standing on end. Such a marvel! We promptly stopped the car to enjoy the unique show that nature offered us. We let them cross, caught in the headlights.
A scene impressed in our memory.
How different life is in small countryside villages! Healthier, for sure. You reclaim the value of time, space. You don’t feel trapped like in a city apartment. However big it is, it’s cement anyway. And you realise that in exchange for fewer services, perhaps you enjoy real life.
Reading the news, it seems that the migration from big cities to the countryside has already started, as a tangible effect of the pandemic. Indeed, the idea of a slow and sustainable lifestyle flows so naturally into this context, followed by a different way of dressing – which we will explore deeper – and decorating our places.
Surely, a way of living our life in tune with nature.
It has proven that economic growth and environmental impact are directly connected. What we used to call climate change is now a climate emergency. Therefore, in order to reduce our impact on nature, we have no other choice than to change our lifestyle.
To this end, modern migration to the countryside is an opportunity. Our needs have changed, big cities aren’t the answer anymore. We need more nature.
Therefore, we are envisioning a future where people repopulate small villages, giving them a new life. Intensive mass growing leaves space for smaller communities, all interconnected so as to support each other.
Finally, we can use progress and the web not to prevail or exploit but to genuinely and deeply connect.
With this in mind, we can be part of the solution and not part of the problem.
That’s the lifestyle for modern humans.