Today’s photo shows the view from the roof of our new location of the Sanctuary of Joy in Italy [read more on http://www.sanctuaryofjoy.org/en/sanctuary-of-joy-new-home-in-italy/ ]
It’s wonderful to be surrounded by nature: there is very little ‘civilization’ noise, light and electro-magnetic pollution here, and we can enjoy the view of wonderful starry skies at night, take care of our land and trees, hear the birds sing and almost forget that there are people addicted to video games, dumb television programs and other nonsense.
Also, as you can notice, we have installed a solar panel on that roof to take advantage of the sunny weather of the country. We are concerned with the amount of energy – and ‘things’ – that get produced and then wasted for useless (or just futile) reasons in the world nowadays and with the impact that human kind is having on the environment; hence we like to keep our footprint small and we are going largely off the grid in our new place, reducing our needs and our consumption, trying to be smart about our energy and technology choices.
It’s not just about electricity and how it’s produced, but also what is it used for; technology in general has become more and more invasive into our modern lives, creating stress, alienation and disconnection between people, polluting and exploiting the environment, and we feel the need of going back to basics in many ways.
This doesn’t mean we reject modernity or innovation as a whole – just their excesses.
Innovation for the sake of it takes many forms, but it’s always driven by money and ego – even if it gets often masked as ‘progress’.
Counteracting these tendencies also takes many forms and varied efforts: from producing your own food or at least buying organic and locally grown one, to using alternative and natural medicine, to not listening to the mainstream media but thinking with your own brain, to recycling, re-using and buying second-hand items that are still good and usable, and so forth.
What steps are you taking to get back in touch with your human nature and to limit your impact on the planet?
