While We Live On Earth

Year-end resolutions for reimagining reality.

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Dear reader,

As we step into the new year, I want you to know how deeply you all mean to me, whether you're a free or paying subscriber. Your presence in my journal is profoundly meaningful, inspiring me to continue sharing my voice and heart authentically. Thank you for being a part of this journey with me. I wish you a year filled with health, boundless imagination, liberation from oppressive systems, and ample rest, joy, and well-being for you and your loved ones.

Here's to dreaming and creating together in the year ahead.

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I think about the years when I believed it was crucial to recap each year's end on Instagram. There was an urgency to mark every full and new moon, crafting lists documenting past growth and anticipating what lay ahead. It held great significance back then, in a different time. But looking back, I realize I got ahead of myself, tethering much of my worth to what I shared and how much I could offer others. I cared deeply about not disappointing others, striving to meet expectations I believed they held for me—expectations, I now understand, were largely self-imposed.

I love to write; I have lived and live a life of thousands of stories and one.

But it doesn't feel right to recap/ highlight my year during a genocide.

Don't we all carry within us thousands of untold stories and one? Each of us a book, or two, or three. Some stories will be shared, while other parts of us may remain unseen, misunderstood, or unheard by others. The complexity of our narratives adds a unique layer to the human experience.

And as I think these thoughts, I hold close all the Palestinian lives lost. Depending on what timeline you're on — and if you're anything like most of us — you've witnessed a lot of death on your screens over the last three months.

Changed forever by the haunting images of countless mothers cradling their children's lifeless bodies, families and friends recording the death of their loved ones for the whole world to bear witness—to believe them.

I think about how important it is for me to express myself creatively, write, make art, and have daily practice. To be seen, to be supported, to feel loved. I think about how many Palestinian children, how many people who felt the same, who had so many dreams and visions for their future, have died so violently, hungry, dehumanized, as if their dreams mattered less than mine. 

We live on Earth with polar bears, otters, eagles, majestic mountains, and flowing rivers embraced by sacred plants and healing lands. We share the planet with whales, ants, gorillas, rosemary, and sage, while butterflies cocoon and the skies shimmer with the light of the moon. Our extraordinary planet, adorned with the grace of existence, cradles vast oceans with intricate ecosystems where dolphins dance, and coral reefs paint a kaleidoscope of colors. Ancient trees whisper in the wind in lush rainforests, offering sanctuary to elusive creatures and abundant resources. Majestic plains resound with lion roars and the elegant gallop of wild horses. We live on Earth where golden sunsets paint the sky, rhythmic tides connect continents, and enchantment unfolds in myriad forms, from the birth of new life to the harmonious choreography of the cosmos. We are here with Eucalyptus and Joshua and Oak trees, aurora borealis, snowflakes, lagoons, Amazon jungles, and magical mushrooms. We are here in this place that is straight from a fairy tale.

We live on Earth, where billionaires thrive while children die of hunger and bombs. We live on Earth, where racism persists, and settler colonialism is bolstered by deceit.

We live in a world that forcefully sells the lie that happiness is tethered to material possessions. 

A world of capitalism designed to keep us struggling, oppressed, and docile. Amidst individualism prevailing over community, people hunt for sport and take lives for amusement. Black and brown bodies continue to face unjust and disgusting marginalization and dehumanization. On Earth, men still fear the cosmic power and intuition of women, robbing us of equal rights. We live on Earth where genocide is justified. 

We live on Earth, where we switch on our phones and confront the brutal reality of children torn to pieces, lying alone in pools of blood, shaking from fear—their entire families massacred. Many choose to forget or remain indifferent to the interconnectedness of our safety, well-being, and humanity. We live on Earth where it's urgent to speak up, take collective action, and refuse to turn away from the horrors surrounding us.

On Earth, nature radiates liberation, health, and abundance for all, but oppressive systems insist that we earn the right and privilege to this joy. Exploiting us for profit, these tyrannical regimes sever our vital connections to land and community, crucial elements for our overall well-being.

We live on Earth, a cosmic creation envisioned by the mysterious universe and shaped by humanity's collective imagination. 

Those holding perceived power have constructed an undesirable reality—an environment marked by wealth, control, punishment, exploitation, censorship, discrimination, injustice, murder, and more. These constructed systems shield them from the struggles that bind the rest of us.

We find ourselves tethered to stringent hours, grappling with more than one job, navigating the demands of bills and taxes, ensnared in a totalitarian machine that compels us to serve systems intent on eroding our spirits and creativity. 

And because we live on Earth, your pain is my pain. Your joy is my joy. Together, we are Earth.

And because we are Earth, we still have the time to reimagine the world. We still have the time to dream of what's possible, to awaken our radical creativity, and to defy the systems that strip away our dreams. 

We live on Earth, where each day is a chance to fight for a world free from racism, genocide, occupation, apartheid, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism. If we were to consider New Year's revolutions, let it be this: together, let's uphold the freedom and dignity of all indigenous people and collectively rise against imperial powers profiting from our death. 

In 2024, may we commit to unlearning colonial teachings and honoring indigenous ways of life, embracing the discomfort of changing our minds, working collaboratively to nurture our communities, and leaning into a radical vision of a new world.

May—while we live here on Earth—discover the courage and willingness to construct the essential elements for the well-being of everyone, the freedom of all, and the flourishing of everyone's dreams.

May—while we are Earth—transform how we relate to one another, prioritize people over profit, create beauty, and choose life over death.

With love,

Vanja

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