But safety is an unusual need in that it is based almost entirely upon an illusion. As humans, we are blessed (and cursed) with the knowledge that death is inevitable and that it could happen at any time. At best, safety is relative, at worst it is nonexistent and just a figment of our overactive imaginations.

The simple truth is that we are never safe. Freak accidents, diseases and any number of other deadly incidents can take place at any given time. Even if we lock ourselves away in a metal room and remove all foreseeable hazards, death and injury can find us. Deep down we know that.

If true safety were a requirement of our happiness, humans would be driven mad in frenzied attempts to mitigate every possible hazard, knowing that it is all a futile effort. As long as our mortality can not be escaped, safety can not be achieved.

Yet, most people, feel safe when they sleep at night. Though literally anything can happen while they slumber, they rest assured that they will wake up the next morning in much the same condition that they went to bed.

Our minds, over the years, have trained themselves to ignore the millions of risks we face, responding only to the most immediate and probable dangers we face. Much of this is self preservation, enabling us to spend our energy on the things that are most likely to hurt us, but much of it is also self deception, allowing us to turn a blind eye to less visible risks.

This has resulted in a warped sense of safety. The dangers we face every day have become skewed and warped by a combination of convenience, media hype and misinformation. Whether the dangers are bad drivers, terrorists, heart disease or bird flu, we know we can't possibly protect against all of the hazards we face, so we focus on the ones that make us feel the most safe, not necessarily the ones that pose the greatest risk.

That is the crux of the safety problem. Since safety is an illusion, so are many of the dangers. What makes us feel safe is often very different from what actually improves our chances of survival. What helps us sleep at night is rarely what helps us wake up in the morning.

This need for safety has become our Achilles heel. Our mortality has become our mortal weakness. We know neither safety nor happiness so long as we give in to illusions of safety and of danger. We are never as safe as we feel we need to be, nor are we in as grave of danger as we often think we are.

These notions, however, are lost on us as safety is a feeling and it knows no intellect. There is no rationalizing with the idea of safety or the people that feel they do not have it. Once lost, the quest for the feeling of safety is all-consuming, usually overpowering better forms of judgment and pushing us down paths we would never otherwise take.

The time has come to breathe. To realize that, while this need for safety that drives us is a positive thing, it is no being used to drive us down paths we need not tread. Safety has never been anything but an illusion and that lack of grounding is used against us every day of our lives by our governments, our media, our businesses and even others on the street.

The truth is that safety comes from within. You can not buy it, you can not vote for it and there is no knowledge that mysteriously grants it. Safety comes from within ourselves and our loved ones. It's about a place in your room that makes you feel safe, about being warm in the arms of a loved one, about finding the one thing that reminds you of safer times.

Safety is an illusion and it is a necessary one. However, we have to stop looking outside of ourselves to find it. Any illusion the world can give us can also be found within. If we make our own illusions, we can use them to our advantage. If we let others make our illusions, they can use them to their advantage.

It takes inner strength to do this, to look within for answers that do not exist, But that strength is what it truly takes to feel safe in such a crazy world.

Basically, we're lost travelers, constantly at the mercy of the various perils of the world around us, wondering from path to path, decision to decision, never knowing if we're going to get where we think we're headed.

We make the decisions the best we can, judging all of the variables we can see, but never really knowing what lies beyond the next bend. It's a frightening prospect and one that has broken many souls. We live in fear and uncertainty and that is our permanent state.

Yet, we press on. The air often grows cold and the nights are long, but we press on. Not because we want to or because it's easy, but because we have to. There is no going back, there is no alternative.

But if we press through these tough times, if we keep ourselves warm on the long cold nights and survive the hardships that nip at us every step of the way, we are rewarded. No path can stay uphill forever and no trail can remain rugged for all of time.

History is paved on the backs of the souls who quit, those that couldn't push on or find the new path. However, it's written about those who do, the ones that break through and find something worthwhile at the end.

So, if a path is a dead end or taking you a wrong direction, don't hesitate to take another one. Even though you don't know where it leads, it can hardly lead you more astray. But most of all, keep yourself warm when the nights get cold and don't let the perils of the forest get to you. Though they might alter your course, if you can keep pushing past the difficulties, greater things await.

For life is a game for those that don't give up. Those who go just a little bit further see things until their end and push on through hardships. Victory in life isn't determined by money, wealth or fame, but by having enjoyed and cherished the human experiences.

Sadly, it's hard to cherish life while you're watching it pass you by. That is why we must keep moving and constantly progressing. Even if we're not the first, we can still be the happiest.

For the struggles we face along these paths make the triumph of beating them that much greater and they offer wisdom which can help us with the trails we choose to follow in the future.

Wisdom, which can bring even greater rewards.

While everyone makes mistakes and, on a planet with six billion people, we're going to adversely affect those around us, some among us take it to a whole new level. They are either so negligent, or even malicious, that their acts are a conscious disregard for others. This goes beyond a lack of compassion or the absence of empathy and shuns all convictions and morals aside.

When you see these people, take a moment to look into their eyes. You'll see something truly unique. When you stare down into the pit of their souls, you'll see that they believe they're better than you. They seem themselves as a superior life form and yourself, along with those around you, are just insects waiting to be stomped.

With this form of imagined superiority comes a sense of entitlement, and that is where things go wrong. These people not only believe that they are better than the world, but that the world owes them something. Be it the color of their skin, the way they grew up, the money in their pocket or just something inside them, they feel that they are entitled to better treatment and they will take it if necessary.

That sense of entitlement is what leads to their downfall. Nature, as luck would have it, doesn't possess and entitlement clause. Those who think that they are owed something might be able to take it from time to time, but will never really be able to possess it. Those who believe they deserve something, for no other reason than who they are, are incapable of working for it and earning it.

And in there lies the bitter truth. All men are created equal, but they don't always stay that way. Some of us work hard, achieve great things and make something of our lives. Those who do that, for the most part at least, learn humility and invest themselves emotionally into ideas of justice and equality.

Others feel entitled; they do nothing, achieve nothing and, instead, leech off society. These are the ones who feel superior, the ones who achieve the least, offer nothing to the world and, instead, only flex their supposed superiority by taking that which does not belong to them.

In the end, it's their very sense of superiority that prevents them, not just from becoming better people, but from becoming anything at all. They can't plow the fields in the kingdom they believe themselves to rule, thus, they never make anything grow.

Their accomplishments are fantasies and society, let alone nature, will not favor these fools. They are doomed by their own delusions and will feel the wrath soon.

So when wronged in such a manner, try to let it go. If it was an honest mistake, it will not be repeated and, if it's someone taking what does not belong to them through a feeling of entitlement, they will feel their own demise soon enough.

For nature is cruel to those who don't earn their keep and nothing you can do will ever be able to compete with the very forces that keep evolution going.

This quest pushes us to do strange and desperate things. In such a commercialized society, we spend billions of dollars buying jewelry, gifts and trinkets in a bid to express our love. We spend countless paychecks, work second jobs and put untold amounts of strain on ourselves just to prove our feelings through material things.

The dirty secret of it all though is that love has no symbols. It is something that, by its very nature, defies all symbolism, especially with material possessions. The rich feel love no differently than the poor and the wealthy suffer no less from heartbreak than the destitute. Love does not discriminate on money and, in fact, tends to skip over those who rely on their finances to make their feelings known.

The only symbols of love are all elements of love, tiny glimpses into the emotion itself, mere glimmers of light reflected off of the sea of emotion. A tender kiss, a long goodbye, a heartfelt look, a content sigh and a soft touch are far more symbols of love than any diamond or flower ever could be.

For anyone with enough time or money can buy a rose or a diamond, only love can create those little moments that remind you how real it is. However, those who are living it often grow deaf to those special moments, especially as advertisers beat down their door with a more commercialized version of love.

Soon, love no longer feels like love and the quest for something timeless makes what's had look worn and gray. Because we obsess so much about expressing our love and focus so little on living it and cultivating it, it withers and dies. It's like talking to a flower while it's rotting away in darkness, love doesn't need to know how you feel, it just needs some light to let it grow.

So, if you have someone special, take some time tonight or soon, not to tell them how you feel, but to enjoy being in love, to be together, hold one another and just get caught up in the moment without a rose, a diamond or a word between you. Don't worry about what will become of it, don't even think about the future, the problems you two face or how you can express your feelings, enjoy the moment, enjoy that night.

Because, not only do we not know what tomorrow brings, but there are countless souls who can't share a moment like that. They either haven't found someone to love or are apart from them. No matter the reason though, it means you have to cherish your gift that much more and need to put that much more into it to make it grow.

Simply put, when you have a society so obsessed with money, the little things can easily be overlooked. We can not take them for granted and we must make them a priority. Because, no matter how quickly we look past them in our every day lives, the second they're gone, they leave a hole that can never truly be filled. For what was once held and ripped away can never be fully reclaimed- no matter how many times we move on, no matter how many years go by and no matter how many millions make.

It's a bitter fact of life, but one of the few that can easily be avoided if one is willing to work.

Many turn to their faith, hoping and praying for relief, others reflect within, searching for answers within themselves when none can be found in the world around them. But no matter where you turn or where you look, you always learn about yourself and, in that small regard, our darkest times can be turned into our most valuable asset.

For when we’re just going about our lives, we’re practically standing still. We’re not changing or making any effort to improve, we’re simply drifting. With shifts happening over months and years and little idea where we’re going, just a vague idea of where we’ve been, we learn nothing and grow little.

The moments that move us not only change us, but show us the direction that we’re heading. For the first times in our lives, we see who we really are, what we’re becoming and are given the power to change it. Through the tears, pain and loss comes a sense of opportunity, a chance to rebuild, to improve and to grow.

In the long run, we are defined more by our dark times than the times we were just surviving. Our darkest hours are the ones that cast the sharpest contrast on our life, change us the most and make us who we are.

Though that doesn’t reduce the sting of those times when we’re in the thick of them, nor is it meant to, it means that there is always hope, a chance for a brighter future and better days. For no destruction takes place without presenting and opportunity for recreation and no dark times can pass without providing valuable lessons and a chance to become something stronger.

So yes, right now we need to cry our tears and mourn our losses. Yes, we need to deal with the tragedies that have surrounded us and cope the best that we can. But through it all, we must remember that the future is being written today, even as history is being destroyed.

Finally, we must remember that when we emerge from these times, no matter when that is, we’ll all be changed people, wiser, stronger and with a new understanding of who we are. We must use that to work toward creating a better future, a greater tomorrow.

That’s the only way to ensure that what was lost hasn’t perished in vain and the only way to paint a picture of our lives defined not by the darkest hours, but by the lessons learned from them.

The problem is that we don't know the answer to that question. At least not in the days we're living. It's only when we're able to look back on the memories we have that we can pick out the moments that rose above the others and see, for ourselves, when we were truly living.

We can only see those moments when they're gone, we can only respect what we had, what we felt and what we achieved when the days they were a part of have sunk deep below the horizon. Like patterns in a wheat field, they only become clear when viewed from a distance, the kind of distance only years of wisdom can bring.

Yet we carry on, living our lives the best we can, seeking temporary joys to make the days go by easier and never knowing which moments, if any, will play a role in defining who we are and why we are alive. We spend our days groping endlessly for meaning only to find it when looking back through the home movies storied within our own heads.

In that regard we, as humans, have been cursed. We're the only species that realizes our lives were meant to be something more than just a matter of survival. We were given the gift, either through evolution or some divine plan, to see that life is a precious gift and one that should not be wasted.

However, we were not given the ability to see for ourselves what constitutes living and what not wasting our lives really means Even the epiphanies and revelations that seem to change the world can seem hollow and meaningless when viewed through the lens of history. Like a painter only able to see an inch of canvas at a time, we try to fill in a painting, completely unsure of its meaning or what purpose today's work provides.

Instead, we can only hope that, either through cosmic coincidence, luck or superhuman planning, that our lives carry forth a meaning and make us beings who lived, not just survived.

But in there, lies the rub, only in death that we can define our lives. Even then though, I'd wager we'll find it's not the big strokes that we remember the best, but the fine moments that made them up. Those temporary joys that once left us feeling empty, an extra long embrace, a trivial accomplishment earned after too much work or a simple idea to solve a minor problem, those will be what we remember best and will be most remembered for.

After all, the big picture is far too large to absorb. Rather than remember someone by what he dedicated his life to, we'd much prefer to remember and be remembered for the thousands of little things we did along the way.

So, no matter how noble working toward a larger goal is, we can never forget the small moments shared along the way. They represent us in a way we can't possibly appreciate in the here and now and represent the few times that we moved beyond just surviving and found that higher purpose.

Because, no matter what we say, the higher purpose is usually the smallest one and moments that make up our lives are the ones closest to our heart.

Those with envy look up to their targets while spitting down upon them within the same stroke. They desire their possessions, crave their qualities and lust for their accomplishments all the while creating a hole within themselves, a deep void that must be filled.

However, rather than filling this void by bettering themselves and earning the laurels they crave, they fill it by stealing them from those who've earned them and by breaking their victims down, dragging those with merit down to the level filth the envious occupy. Those with envy in their hearts work tirelessly, chipping away at what others have created until they can climb the pile of rubble left behind and stand alone atop it like a king.

Envy is destructive, it is petty and it is within us all. It's in the insults we hurl, the fists that we throw and the games that we play. Though some are more prone than others, we are all vulnerable to it. Every one of us has it in their hearts.

As good humans, we must not give in to these petty urges. We must never let our desire for more turn us against those who have it. Tearing down what others have built purely for the sake a filling a hole within ourselves achieves nothing, neither filling the hole nor creating any greater good. Difficult though it may be, creation is the higher achievement and it is the only thing that quells the voice of envy inside all of us.

Also, in addition to checking our own hearts, we must not let ourselves fall victim to the envious. They will prod, they will kick, they will insult and they will vandalize, but, unless the creators lower themselves to level of the envious, they can never destroy.

For we are what we build and we are what we do. If we never buckle before the weight of the envious, we will always be above them, no matter what they say.

Because no matter how much pettiness and insults might sting, nothing hurts worse than being trapped in the abyss that is the sludge of envy. We must endure the pin pricks of the envious in order to avoid wallowing in the lake of stagnant inadequacy.

It's a small price to pay and a burden all too easily carried if one can look ahead and see the larger goal.

The idea is that we’re supposed to stand up for the rights of others, including those we don’t know and don’t agree with, to protect our own liberties in the face of oppression. Though it's definitely a significant and noble concept that has an importance which can not be understated, the notion has a flip side that’s seldom explored and, sadly, often ignored.

For, if we have an obligation to stand up for the rights of others, it is equally important that we stand up for our own. After all, how can we ever hope to effectively stand up for strangers if we refuse to do so for ourselves. Worse still, how can we ever hope to enjoy our rights when we refuse to play an active role in protecting them.

Yet how many times have we taken a wrongdoing simply because we don’t want to deal with it, we don’t feel like fighting or it’s just plain easier to let it go? Even though we all have to pick our battles, it never ceases to amaze me how many people refuse to stand up for themselves, even though their rights are directly tied to the freedoms of everyone around them.

A lot of this is because we’re in a society that values selflessness and frowns upon anything perceived as being selfish. We want people to keep their heads down, be quiet and roll with the punches. We look at society as a machine and we don’t want anything to interfere with its workings.

However, we quickly forget that injustice rarely stops at one person and that by protecting our rights, we can protect the rights of others as well. After all, if we don’t stop the infringement, it will just continue to roll on through to the next person and the next, until someone stands up to it.

Sometimes the more selfless thing to do is to stand up for ourselves, to put forth the effort in protecting ourselves from an injustice to prevent it from happening to anyone else. Sometimes the effort we spend fighting for our own rights can save countless others from a similar fate.

So yes, we must stand up for others whenever possible, we must defend the rights of those we’ve never met and never will see. However, we must also protect ourselves. Security, in every respect of the word, starts at home and looking at it solely in terms of the big picture makes it far too daunting a challenge to tackle.

The real battle is going on right now and the time to take a stand is upon us all. Whether we choose to fight or roll over will not only determine our future as a person, but our destiny as a people. And that destiny, good or bad, is what our children and our children’s children will inherit. If we can’t do it for ourselves, we have to do it for them.

There simply is no alternative.

We are largely reactionary souls, responding to stimuli and forming opinions on it while using our memories and predispositions as guides. What this creates is a pattern of learning and adjustment, spanning from birth until death, carving a flowing line through the years in between.

But people find themselves seeking something solid in their lives and, looking back through their past, they only see the calligraphy created by the experiences that make them unique. With nothing rigid to anchor them, they start to hammer out the dents and curves, striving futilely to make a fluid thing solid, erasing their own experiences just to feel more secure.

Worse still, many seek out templates and begin mimicking what others have done. Rather than listening to the experiences of their own lives, they put their trust, almost completely, into a person or a thing that has never walked in their shoes.

It's as if they've taken an eraser and stricken their memories from the face of the earth, making time they've spent on earth completely pointless. By the time it's over, they might as well have never existed at all for they're just living a shadow of someone or something else.

Our individuality isn't just a matter of being who we are and living our lives on our terms, but also of making the most of our precious time. If we walk freely where others have tread before, we have achieved nothing. If we allow ourselves to ignore what we have seen and felt, it's as if we never lived at all.

We are all vulnerable to the pitfalls of conformity. Countless so-called iconoclasts appear as such only because they imitate other individuals. However, it's not because they don't want to be true to themselves, but because it's frightening to look out into the future and have no idea what to do next.

If our lives are to count for anything we can only be rigid in regards to ourselves. We have to use the gifts we were given and the experiences we've had not just to form a common bond with our fellow man, but to discover and cherish what makes us unique.

The calligraphy that is our lives is a truly beautiful thing, even at its ugliest; it plays a part in a gorgeous image. To erase that, out of fear or convenience, is to erase ourselves, and not just our memories gone by, but also our future place in the annals of history.

A home is not a house nor even, necessarily, a building. You don't have to live there or even go there often. Truth be told, home isn't even a place at all, it's a connection you share with a place. It can be a connection forged over time or a bond formed instantly, the second you set foot on the hallowed ground.

Home is a feeling of comfort, a sense of belonging. It's a feeling of security, a place to come to when you're in retreat from the world around you, it's a nurturing sensation that helps you recover and invites you in even when everywhere else seems to reject you.

As such, you can't make a home or build one, it has to find you. Furthermore, the homes we knew and loved as children are quickly outgrown the same as the blankets and lullabies that once made us feel safe. They become nothing more than cherished memories of a simpler time, when the world was smaller and home was wherever you rested your head.

But in our materialistic society, we forget the value of a home. We build houses and mansions, mistaking them to be homes. We feel that we can build bigger, better and more perfect dwellings and make them homes, that we can solve everything with money and greed.

We waste billions upon billions building castles, large and small, only to find them empty and meaningless. No matter how many people live inside them, these temples to greed always feel vacant, like no life can survive within them. They're cookie cutter solutions to an individual need, a desire that's as personal and unique to us as our fingerprints.

That's why we build houses, not homes. That's why so many people, though happy in every other way, are still searching for that feeling of home. Though they might have the family of their dreams and the life they've always craved, there's always that gnawing sense of emptiness, the realization that something is lacking, whenever they stare at the walls around them.

Because home is about character, the character of yourself and the character of the place around you. That's what makes a home something you can't buy, but something you find, cherish and hold onto.

For, much like love, it's something that can be very fleeting and something found not in the grandest of words or gestures, but the smallest of symbols. If you don't enjoy the moments you have, they could be gone tomorrow and moments not enjoyed make poor memories.

So, if you find a home, no matter where it is or what it is, cherish it and love it as deeply as you can. You owe it to yourself and to those who haven't found it yet to make every moment count.

For, in a world so full of misery, we must treasure every joy we can find, even the simple joys of feeling safe and secure in the place that you call home.