The title of this post is a phrase often repeated by spiritual teacher, Ram Dass.  I have found its truth on so many levels.

I care a lot about people.  I really, really wish for everyone to be happy and to be healthy.  I also think about people a lot and the great and different ways they live and the things that I can learn from them.  When others are happy, I am also happy and feel that happiness with them.

Conversely, when people are unhappy, I feel that unhappiness.  I think that as is often the case with unhappiness and unhealthiness, there is many times a fog that clouds that person’s awareness, not allowing them to see the sources of their unhappiness or unhealthiness, or that they are even unhappy or unhealthy at all.  Because of that, it can be much easier for someone who is aware and removed from that perspective to identify these things.

So, that someone has identified these things.  What next?  I think, for most people, the answer has been maybe to tell that person what they think they are doing wrong.  Maybe to get upset with them when they don’t listen to what you say.  Maybe to share that information with the others they are close to.   Maybe to stop hanging out with them until they “get it together”.  Or maybe, the answer has been to simply disagree on these things and to hold on to the associated feelings of disappointment or frustration that you’ve created.  To hold these feelings in a place that is only visited in some moments that remind you, or when you are alone, or when you are with that person.

All I can do for you is work on myself, all you can do for me is work on yourself.

Often to tell someone what we believe they are doing wrong has absolutely no effect because they are at a certain level of consciousness, or on a certain wavelength that cannot hear your message.  Understand that if they were on a wavelength that could hear your message, then they would not be in the position they are in.  So they listen, but they cannot truly hear and you become upset.  So now we have a person who is suffering, who needs the love and help of a friend, and we get angry with them.

For a person already in a position without a lot of love and happiness, receiving negative energy from those closest to them will only push them further away.  If you decide next to stop seeing that person, you are only removing another positive influence from them and a person who can be there with them through their suffering.

But let’s say instead that you do not leave a friend.  You are loyal, but at the same time you are holding on to your opinions about that person.  By holding on to those opinions, you create a barrier between you.  There is an energy of judgment and self-righteousness that sets up a wall that blocks any vibrations of love and acceptance.  Whether you realize it or not, this energetic wall blocks any  real loving communication between you.  The person who is suffering can no longer connect, and you cannot connect to them.  You cannot be together.  If you are a dear friend, this severed or muddled connection can have a crippling effect and both will suffer through interactions that serve as a constant reminder of what was and no longer is.

All I can do for you is work on myself, all you can do for me is work on yourself.

By working on yourself, you become a person more full of love and understanding.  You work on being a person that anyone can talk to about anything.  Someone they know who will not judge and will be there for them no matter the case.  This love is transformative.  It is inevitable that we have feelings of unhappiness with regards to others and our relationships, but by working on ourselves we accept and let go of these feelings to become someone better for those around us.

I had something of an epiphany this week regarding how I view things and people and myself.  I feel as if I have pretty strong… opinions is not the word…  I think that first when I reflect on anything I’m reflecting in relation to myself.  It is my nature to always look to improve my understanding of myself and the world, and so improve the way I live.  When I gain new understanding, it is a trait of mine that I’m able to put this understanding in to practice, even if the practice is completely counter to practices of the masses.

As a result, I find myself, in some ways, living as not many others do.  But, in these ways, I find happiness and peace.  They are a product of my understanding and who I am at the moment and so they work for me.  Above that, I find further satisfaction in that they are counter to the masses.

In this satisfaction of further understanding, I now believe myself able to see the reasons for the suffering of not only myself but of others, as if I have the answers.  It always comes from a good place, but that does not excuse it.  Compounding this is the fact that I do care and think a lot about others so that often I am reasoning out these answers in my head.

But as I said, it is my nature to always look to improve my understanding of myself and the world, and so improve the way I live.  So, now I have a new understanding… and new answers.  But what about those other ones I felt so strongly about?  I think you see what I’m getting at.

We have recently come into the year 2016.  Around this time of the new year, I like to ask people if they have any “resolutions” or things they are planning for the coming year.  I like to do this because I like to get people thinking about these sorts of things if they haven’t been, or encourage and try to help them if they have.

This year especially I’ve had a lot of people tell me that they aren’t fans of or that they don’t believe in resolutions.

“What, all of a sudden this day I’m going to make all of these changes?”

“So many people make these resolutions and forget about them in a month.”

“I try to do stuff everyday, you know.”

I hear you, but let’s look at the New Year for what it is.  A new year; the end of the last.  Throughout the year there are many, many endings.  The end of the minute, the end of the hour, the end of the morning, the end of the day.  The end of the week, the end of the month, the end of the season.  Outside of units of time we have the end of jobs, the end of careers, the end of friendships (hopefully not :)), the end of intimate relationships, the end of a sporting season, the end of a school semester, the end of a stage of life, the end of a feeling, the end of a belief, the end of an view.

Any and many of these things can end within (let’s stick with) any given year and in any certain or uncertain way.  I probably am more reflective than most, but I deem it quite necessary to reflect on things as they begin and end, come and go or else how do we learn?  How do we grow wiser?  How do we not continue to make the same mistakes?

For example, an intimate relationship has ended.  This was a very passionate relationship, but lacked honesty and loyalty.  The highs were very high, but the lows were very low.  There were frequently highs and frequently lows, scaling as if by plane to the top of the mountain only to quickly plummet to the depths of the ocean.  You do not realize it so much when you are in it, but this instability affected all areas of your life.  You clung to the peaks believing in an eternal summit that was never possible.

If one was to not reflect on this relationship, it is very likely that they will go searching for someone that could bring them to the top of the mountain again.  It is very likely that they will cling to that feeling and hold on to the hope that they can stay there forever, maybe potentially with the initial partner at some point in the not-so-clear future.

Reflection could bring truth to the relationship.  What was it, really?  Who was I?  Who was she?  Who was he?  He was insecure.  He had been hurt before and could not trust and so his love was not true love, but a dependence or clinging to a physical feeling.  When his partner was not around, he needed that feeling anyway he could.  I was not understanding enough.  She had different values and looked for different things in life.  He never had a father figure to teach him how to treat a woman.

Or, she really loved me unconditionally, that really meant a lot to me.  He really valued family and I’ve now realized how much my family means to me.  Her strength was not based on external things, but on her knowledge of her inherent value and worth as a human being.  Or, thinking years later, that really was a wonderful relationship full of love, I need to build something like that again.  And so on and so forth.

As a much more frequently occurring example , a day has ended.  How was this day?  How was I feeling?  If it wasn’t a good day, or I wasn’t feeling well, what was lacking?  Did I sleep enough?  How did I eat?  Was I eating lots of processed foods?  Is there something on my mind that I need to deal with?  A conversation I need to have?  A task I need to complete?  If it was a good day, then why was it good?  How can I have days like this each day?  How can I feel like this each day?

This type of reflection brings us wisdom.  It allows us to come closer to our own truths.  It teaches us what we should seek out, what we should be indifferent to, and what we should avoid.  It gives us understanding of ourselves and our world.  Reflection, in my opinion, is vital for improvement.  If we didn’t think about why things are the way they are, we would never change things for the the better.

But it is often difficult for this reflection to occur.  We are so busy.  We live in a system where we must work and work only to be bombarded by a constantly flowing media stream.  “Don’t think about your life.  Don’t think about who we are.  Don’t think about your place in the universe.  Just continue on.  Consume.”  That is one of the reasons why we frequently find ourselves in patterns of behaviour that are entirely negative and only bring us unhappiness.

The celebration of the New Year is one time where we all recognize together the end of one thing and the beginning of another.  In many cases we are given two full days of reflection free of our chains.  More than anything, the New Year provides us an opportunity to reflect on the year that just ended.  Once again, who was I?  How did I feel?  How did I grow?  How were my relationships?  What do I need to do more of?  What do I need to let go of?  In 2014, I resolved to quit smoking cigarettes.  It was an extremely unhealthy habit that was not serving me.  In 2015, I resolved that I needed to give more of myself.  This blog is only one small manifestation of that resolution.  These resolutions of the past two years were two of the most important changes I have made and have only brought more positive changes bringing more love, more health and more life.  They are the result of reflecting on the previous year and asking what I wanted of the next.  This year, I resolve to create more.  I love to read and to listen to music especially, and this year I want to begin to bring some of my own artistry to the world.  So far, that means I will start to take guitar lessons to create my own music and write longer pieces on the way to publishing a book in the future.  These are only the first manifestations of more and more creating in my everyday life.

A year encompasses 365 days, 52 weeks, 12 months, 4 seasons, and the beginning and the end of so many things.  We should not forget what this signifies and the opportunities it presents us to learn, grow, love, and live.

Happy New Year.

 

1. Maitri – Cultivation of friendliness towards those who are happy.
2. Karuna – Cultivation of compassion towards those who are in sorrow.
3. Mudita – Cultivation of joy towards those who are virtuous.
4. Upeksa – Cultivation of indifference or neutrality towards those who are full of vices.

Seems simple.

Many of us, at one point or another, ran to and fro in search of the next high.  Many of us still do.  Maybe the next one will be the one.  There is so much out there.  How can I commit to one?

But how do you feel running to and fro?  To reach the peak of the mountain only to find that there is another peak.  I wanted this so bad, but now I’m here and now I want something else.  To always feel incomplete.  To always need something else to be happy.  To never be content with what you have or with yourself.

As you scale to peak after peak, do you hurt others along the way?  Do you hurt yourself?  The climb is hard; you are not the same after each summit.  You have scars and you have left scars on the mountain that have left an eternal imprint on the both of you.

Well, let me tell you.  No matter your situation, there will always be something else.  Always.  So choose.  Do you want to be forever grasping, climbing to the peak before realizing you are at the bottom again, relying on external gratification?  Or will you stand right where you are, with what you have and who you are, and Be Love?

What is knowledge?  This is a tough one!  This entry has been a long time coming.  I began to think of it deeply after a conversation between myself and two of my best friends about a month ago in Ottawa.  The conversation was about the origin of man.  It got pretty heated!

I’m not even really sure where to begin.  I think maybe a good place to start would be to start with things that I know, without a doubt.

1. I have brown hair.
2. I go to Ryerson University.
3. I went to St. Patrick’s High School.
4. I have had two year-long relationships in my life
5. It hurts to put your hand on a burning hot element.
6. Canada’s confederation was in 1867.
7. World War II was fought between 1939-1945.
8. Kevin Durant led the NBA in PPG in 2013-2014.

Now, let’s list a couple more that are a little… debatable.

9. Forgiveness heals more than grudges.
10. Material things don’t make me happy.

So now what we’ll do is try to find the trait that is common to all of these things that “I” “know”. Right away we would say that of course #1 is true. I currently have brown hair. All you have to do is to look at me, and you would know I have brown hair. So what makes that true is that it is directly observable.  So, we can then “know” something when it is directly observable.

How about #2?  I go to Ryerson University.  Well, this one is not as directly observable as my having brown hair.  If we were classmates together, you could know this to be true.  What if we weren’t?  What if we just met?  You could come visit me right now as I type this entry at my home, and you would not know in the same way.  In this case, you would need some type of proof.  You could follow me around for a couple weeks to see if I go to class.  But I could attend classes and not be a student of the university.  I could also not attend classes and be a student of the University.  You could ask me if I was a student.  But I could lie.  You could, though, ask me to look at my Ryerson student account.  This would tell you if I was enrolled in any classes without any shadow of a doubt.  Right?  Well, if you wouldn’t take my word for it, why would you take the word of an institution?  A very good question.

Well, the institution has good reason to give accurate information.  That enrollment information has value.  To register in courses costs thousands of dollars.  An institution wouldn’t make the mistake of inaccurately portraying a student’s status.   And even if they did, they have many employees that are paid to correct these mistakes.  This is the case because problems caused for the students are also problems caused to the institution.  The institution has a reputation to uphold.  The institution stakes its reputation and its livelihood on the validity of its information.  Because of that, we have enough reason to take the information that it presents as true knowledge.

We can obtain knowledge for #3 in much the same way.  We can ask the institution for the information.  What about #4?  There is no institution that keeps records of all relationships.  How could you come to “know” that I have had two year-long relationships in my life?  I can know it, because I have experienced it.  But what about you?  Well once again, if we were best friends for my whole life, you would know the truth of matter.  But what if we weren’t?  What if we just met?  How would you know this piece of information.  You would have to cross-check with many other people throughout my life who experienced these relationships with me.  I wouldn’t lie, but I easily could.  Are you willing to say you know something based off the word of someone you just met?  Even if a couple of other friends present confirm the information?  Maybe there’s one relationship that we just don’t talk about.  If you are a friend, rather than having just met me, it might be a little bit easier to confirm this information but it still takes a little bit more to say that you “know” this.

#5, you can easily come to know this by placing your hand on the element and experiencing it yourself.  For #8, although this is in the past, I witnessed and experienced Kevin Durant lighting it up last year and I can once again cross-check the information with an institution.

For #’s 6 and 7, the answer is similar to the institutional responses given to #’s 2 and 3.  This information has been presented by many sources who stake their reputation and livelihood on the validity of its information.  Further, with WWII, our grandparents lived through and experienced it.  The first-hand experiences they share with this give us some knowledge of the War.  They remember family members going away and not coming back, or if they went themselves they remember the horror of it all, they remember the day it ended.  With Confederation, the date and the separation travels further and further into the past.  There may be people living whose parents told them their experience of the day, but there is no person living who experienced this event.  The knowledge of this event comes from the fact that people once experienced this date.  The date was recorded in history books.  This information has passed along generations without changing, and so the information is trusted and known.

How far are you willing to go back?  Would you say that you know something that was recorded in the 1700s.  The 1500s?  1000s?  700s?  500s?  BC?  There are so many degrees of separation between the people who actually experienced the events to us, so much is lost in translation, that it is hard to say that we know these things.

Now what about #’s 9 and 10?  Looking at these list of ten things that I know, #’s 9 and 10 definitely are the most important and most impactful on my day-to-day life, my outlook on life, my happiness.  How do I know these things?  Experience.  I mean, I was taught by my parents and my Catholic school upbringing the power of forgiveness, but I could not say that I knew what they meant.  It was not until I suffered, felt hatred, and suffered more.  Then suffered again, felt more hatred, and suffered more.  Then suffered again, felt hatred, forgave, and felt it for myself that I really knew.

With the material, it was the same thing.  I had been conditioned some by our Western capitalist society that I needed to consume.  I needed material things to be happy and satisfied.  I also learned from other sources that it is only uprightness of spirit/ morals/ character (whatever you want to call it) that can make one happy.  It was only through experience.  Through my own feelings when I had and did not have material things, when I had and did not have uprightness that I came to know that material things do not make me happy.

I can know these things… How about you?  Really, as much as you “take my word for it”, you can’t really know until you experience it yourself.  Until you suffer, reflect, and understand yourself and your world.

***

There were ten things that I “know” on this list.  Of those ten things I knew, there were eight that you could plausibly confirm.  The things that are directly observable or experienced were the easiest to know.  As the degrees of separation increase, it becomes more difficult.  I want to raise another issue that can make it even more difficult.  This is not to say that you cannot believe anything, it is merely something to think about.

For things that were not directly observable, that we weren’t able to experience, for the things that we checked with institutions.  There is always a possibility that this information is not true.  I am not a cynic at all and I am not promoting cynicism.  But Ryerson University or St. Patrick’s High School or the publishers of history or whomever it may be could have reasons to give information that is not in line with reality.  Just a quick example that was first to come to mind.  A person can be a registered employee of a company.  He could be being paid a wage for a full-time work week for a certain period of time per records.  However, in reality, this worker was never on the job site.  He was merely getting his dirty money laundered through the financial system back to him through a cooperating company.  Institutions could have many reasons to misrepresent information.

Another thing to note is that out of all of these ten things, the two most important things on the list could not be known through the checking of facts.  They could only be known through experience.

Conclusively, it wouldn’t be prudent to distrust all institutions but it should be remembered that true knowledge may not be the only agenda.  This list of ten shows that knowledge comes, firstly, from experience.  Further, it shows that the most important things can only be known through experience.  It is my own opinion then, that we must value furthering our experiences if we want to increase not only our knowledge, but our knowledge of things of true value.

Lots of talk on consciousness, but let’s continue.  Today, I would like to make a distinction.  A distinction between growing one’s consciousness horizontally and growing one’s consciousness vertically.

Horizontal (or to broaden or narrow one’s consciousness)

I am going to use examples to illustrate this.  There is a boy.  This boy was born into a tough environment (although it is not an environment that necessarily holds down one’s conscious development) where the only thought is survival.  (I’ve just come to a realization!!!).  There is not much love on his mind, in his spirit.  He is 8 years old, and all he knows is to aggressively pester his parents to feed him enough to survive, to give him enough warmth in the winter months.

He is now 15.  He has yet to heighten his consciousness.  But he has broadened it greatly.  He retains his aggressive nature.  He thinks only of his own survival, but now he is aware of much more within this (we will call it) plane.  He knows how to hunt different prey.  He knows how to steal when the timing is right.  He knows how to build his own shelter for different kinds of weather.

He is now 22.  A man.  A man who compassionately realized that he has been completely selfish and that maybe he can spare some of his time (heart) for others.  This man has grown his consciousness vertically.  He is on a higher level where he begins to ponder different things.  He begins to ask new questions.  He begins to see the world in a new way.

He is now 29.  After years of lending himself to others here and there, he has begun to see the inter-connectedness of it all.  He begins to see that his old self of hatred and greed was primal.  He realizes that that behaviour had ill-effects on his environment.  On the earth, animals, and people he destroyed for his own physical pleasure.  He knows there is something common amongst it all and he begins to examine and study deeper questions.  He is now dedicating himself to furthering his people and his land.  He has expanded his consciousness vertically again.  Into a new plane of consciousness.

Within this plane, he studies.  He studies all of the laws of nature.  Of ecosystems.  Of child development.  Of sociology.  He broadens his consciousness greatly.  He spreads this knowledge to his community.

***

I hope I have made the distinction.  I feel as if in recent centuries, we have very much focused on the broadening or widening of our consciousness, but have not grown it vertically.  We continue to research and research on this plane of consciousness, but have forgotten about moving further upwards.

While writing this I came to the realization that what grows one’s consciousness vertically is Love.  The boy could only grow when he was able to love himself, and the others around him.  He grew more once he was able to love them more deeply.  He grew even more when he was able to look past those closest to him and began to love his environment and nature.

Where is next?  Loving strangers.  Loving the world.  Loving the Universe.  Being Love.

I love you all!

I’ve touched a little bit on consciousness and the conscious.  But what about the unconscious?

I defined consciousness as the totality of what we hold in awareness.  Almost like the lens through which we see the world.  The unconscious, on the other hand, are the automatic process which we do not hold in awareness.  My recent readings have had me very interested in this “unconscious”.

We saw how our consciousness can shape our reality.  But our consciousness, we hold in awareness.  We know what it consists of.  The unconscious, on the other hand, is out of our awareness.  It, then, can shape our reality in ways unbeknownst to us, for better or for worse.  That is, if we do not acknowledge and listen to it.

But what is contained in the unconscious?

One of my first writings 2014 and 2015 I spoke about how past occurrences in my life had begun to “build up”.  These occurrences were manifesting themselves in my daily life for some time.  They caused me to feel restricted, depressed, and anxious, among other things.  These occurrences caused these types of reactions within me because I repressed them.  I did not see the occurrences properly, they caused me feelings I did not want to experience, and so I repressed these feelings.  Feelings of guilt, sadness, anger, and shame.  Rather than become correctly conscious of these feelings, I chose to repress them and send them away.

These occurrences and feelings do not simply disappear.  They instead, reside in the unconscious.  These are all memories, fears, wishes, needs and duties which we have not been able to come to terms with that create a complex that can interfere with our conscious life in disturbing ways.

A couple of conclusions about the unconscious:

• The unconscious has a very large impact on our conscious living.  The first step in understanding this impact is to reflect and examine whether there is some sort of disturbance hindering us or some sort of underlying theme to our daily efforts.  Am I causing myself unnecessary pain?  If the answer is yes, then we need to look deeply within to first acknowledge and then make these repressions conscious.  When we do this, then we can start to more fully understand ourselves through our unconscious complexes.
• We will always have these complexes.  They are not only hindering disturbances; they also can drive certain positive inclinations (eg. inferiority complex rooted in a childhood sibling rivalry driving consistent motivation for achievement). The goal is not to necessarily to eliminate complexes (although that may occur) but by bringing the unconscious into awareness we are able to get a deeper understanding of ourselves and, in effect, a deeper understanding of others, the world, and universal Truth.
• I am currently of the belief that dreams are messages from our unconscious.  Certain thoughts or feelings that we have repressed into the unconscious often reveal themselves to us in our dreams when we are unable to block them out.  If we are stuck and unable to identify and understand repressions and complexes consciously, our dreams may be able to give us some sort of direction.

There is a little baby.  It may be a baby girl, it might be a baby boy.  It might be a family member, or the baby of a friend.  Regardless, you kiss this baby!  On the head, on the cheek, and often on the mouth.

When and why does this ever stop?  At what age do we stop doling out kisses?  There are few more powerful and lovely signs of affection than a kiss.  When I kiss, I feel love and a strong bond.  It is a great thing.  Our adolescent or adult selves are not needing less love than a baby.

“But, Jacob, a kiss is an intimate thing.  You don’t just go giving them out to anybody.”

But we give them out to babies?

“Babies are babies.  They are so kissable and they can’t say no.”

Every baby becomes a man or woman.  What makes a man or woman any more or less “kissable”?  Do they not deserve the same love?  Would the same love not help and strengthen them?  And wouldn’t the fact that the baby can say no be a reason not to kiss them?  They have no say in the matter and cannot resist.  Is that not unfair?  A man or woman can accept or decline the kiss.  Is it maybe that we are afraid to give out such love to people that may reject us? That may be something to think about.  Remember, Love has no fear.

“Well, now that I think of it.  Different cultures do kiss on the mouth.”

So then it seems your belief may be one that has been the result of conditioning.  Let us always remember to think for ourselves.  My beliefs might not be the same as yours, maybe it is not you to give out kisses.  But, we must always examine ourselves and why we do the things we do.  In this matter and all others, I implore you to look within for answers.  History has shown us that what has been socially accepted or unaccepted has not always been right.

***

I describe myself as spiritual but would not describe myself as religious at all.  I was baptized as a Catholic and went through the Catholic school system, but have never practiced on my own (I have read the Bible once).  However, Jesus is definitely someone I really look up to.  When I was pondering this last night, I suddenly wondered, “Did Jesus kiss others on the mouth?”

After doing some research, I’ve found that Jesus and early Christians did greet each other with a “holy kiss”; a kiss on the mouth!

These findings are in no way confirmation of a view.  It was merely a question that came to me (strange, because I can’t remember the last time the thought of Jesus came to me) and felt compelled to answer.

Things, generally, do not often upset me or cause me irritation.  Lately, most often as I walk around my university campus, I admit that I find myself getting a little irritated with my peers.  The reason for this irritation is the automated use of automatic doors designed for the less able.

I want to be clear that it is the automated use that disturbs me,  Of course there are times when the arms and hands are full and the only option left is to push our bottoms or sides into this helpful button.  There are also other examples of these kinds of instances.

I would guess that I am probably coming off a bit grouchy thus far, but let me explain.

The population that has been the source of my chosen irritation has been young, able-bodied students, aged 18-25.  They walk towards the school building, backpacks on, usually phone in hand, headphones in ear, and straight-faced.  They then press the button to activate the automatic door and enter.

“Okay, Jacob, that does not seem like the worst of deeds.  You are forgiving of much worse on a daily basis.”

Well, let us think about this.  Let us think about who these doors were made for. We needn’t think very hard.  Clearly on all of these buttons is the symbol with which we identify those with physical disabilities.  These are the people who this service has been intended to aid.  These are people who may have lost use of or have completely lost a limb or several.  They may have all of these, but lost motor skills.  They may have lost their vision.

Whatever they have lost or never had possession of, I am sure that these people would give anything to be able.  Anything.  This is what pains me.  Everyday, I see able-bodied students, fully healthy, taking what they have for granted.  In every moment there is an opportunity for infinite joy and happiness.  I have legs.  I have arms.  I have my vision.  I am healthy.  Within this matrix we live in, it is easy to forget these simple joys.  You are alive.  You are healthy and able.  Embrace and love that.

As I wrote this post, I noticed a change in my energy.  There is no longer even a hint of irritation.  It has been replaced with a mix of gratitude and compassion.

Gratitude for being so lucky to have been born healthy to such a great family in a great country.

Compassion for those less fortunate.  This is not even close to pity, but compassion.  I know there are those less physically able that are living to the fullest, but I feel for their inability to experience certain things that I, personally, take so much joy in.

Compassion also for those in a period where life has become automated.  I hope that you can awaken to realize the joys of simply being able to walk to class or open door.  You are very lucky.  I hope that in the future you may use the symbol we place on a button to bring you back to the present moment.  The present moment in which you are filled with joy for your health and strength, and compassion for those less fortunate.  I hope that joy and compassion spreads to every reach of your heart.