Happy Chaitra Navratri, the First Day of Ramadan, and Nowruz to all those observing these holidays over the past few days, today, and over the next month.

At the end of 2022, I was faced with a rather complicated predicament: do I put out my annual state of the planet address when I really don't know what to say... about the state of the planet?

It may seem a silly thing to say, after all, I really should have something to say about the planet at the end of every year, but this year something felt different. Barring the fact that in 2022 I decided to hide this website behind a password, this past year felt like the year when... I wasn't fully myself.

Somehow I don't feel I am alone in this thought. As many of us came out of the pandemic and began to go about life as normal, some countries plunged right back into it. As many countries were feeling the aftermaths of their widespread society-changing protests, other countries just began to enter theirs. Not to mention, as many countries ended their wars, in Ukraine their war was only beginning.

How do we make sense of such a world, where we are all struggling to understand our own identities? It's a question that I think about often, and this is the best answer I can come up with:

It is okay to take some time to disconnect from the world and reevaluate who you are.

Sleep in. Call in sick. Take a day off. It's okay.

You cannot be perfect every single day, and more importantly, being perfect every day is not even a life worth living. Life is measured as much by the days when things don't go your way, as it is by the days when things are better than you could've imagined.

This past year, I enjoyed not being Kalki as much as I enjoyed being Kalki. I have learned to appreciate those days of living off the grid.

Funny, I didn't want to write about the state of the planet but I suppose in a strange way this was a statement on the state of the planet. 

But I still wonder, have you felt the same about your life as well?

-k