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Hello world!
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” Viktor E. Frankl
Hello world: Welcome to Mirth and Motivation!
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Respite Reminder: I’m Taking My Advice. Will check occasionally. Back soon!
Welcome to Mirth and Motivation!
Mirth and Motivation is a lifestyle and motivational blog offering an eclectic mix of mirthful and motivational pieces: Life Tips / Advice, Affirmations/Wellness, Women’s Lives, Food, Travel, Interviews, Inspirational posts, Reviews, Peace, and social media ruminations on people, places, and events that shape our lives. I invite you to stay awhile, read some posts, and share your thoughts with this growing online blog community.
I started this blog 17+ years ago, as a way to help agents/staff at the company I worked for stay motivated. This was my first blog post on the WordPress site, hence the dodgy title. After the market crashed and we were downsized, I decided to keep it going. The main goal was, and remains, to encourage myself and others to keep moving forward with our lives and embrace the ups and downs we all face. Creating and writing MirthandMotivation has been a long and rewarding journey.
WHAT HAVE I LEARNED?
Over the years, I have learned a lot about blogging, its many positives and pitfalls, and how important it is to stay focused on our own Why or raison d’être. We can choose to focus on one of the fundamental rules of blogging: making connections with others by adding value through our message/content, comments, and social interactions. We can also choose to turn our attention elsewhere. It is entirely up to us.
One thing I know for sure is that if your heart is invested in what you blog about, you will stay the course. Remember to stay true to who you are and why you blog. It can’t just be about monetization. Add value. Help others. Stay Encouraged.
Another thing I know for sure is that we all want to be heard, appreciated, and respected; empowering messages are far more appealing than incendiary attempts to attract blog attention. If your blogosphere surfing brings you here, relax, kick back, and share a positive tidbit on your worldview.
HOW DO WE STAY MIRTHFUL AND MOTIVATED?
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“The stories of our Indigenous people have shaped the very foundational fabric of our modern day. And so much of that is just not known, not felt, not acknowledged.” Lily Gladstone
Motivation Mondays: Beyond Columbus Day. Honoring Indigenous Resilience
Joy Harjo in Conversation with Layli Long Soldier: Living Nations, Living Words
Motivation Mondays: Beyond Columbus Day. Honoring Indigenous Resilience. For decades, we’ve celebrated Columbus Day alone with nary a mention of our true indigenous people, Native Americans, whose land we all live on. It has taken 50 years to reach this moment, and I invite you to join me, join so many of us, in celebrating this important milestone. Today we honor both Indigenous Peoples’ Day and Columbus Day. While the jury might still be out on whether Christopher Columbus discovered America, what is unequivocal is the celebration of our Indigenous people. Welcome to a space for reflection, remembrance, and reclamation. What are your thoughts on this matter? What did you learn growing up?
On this Indigenous Peoples’ Day, I have decided to look beyond the narrow horizons of incomplete historical narratives and instead lean into the rich stories and lives of the First Peoples who have always managed this land. For further reflection, I uploaded an insightful video conversation, “Joy Harjo: Living Nations, Living Words,” above, featuring the brilliant voices of Joy Harjo and Layli Long Soldier as they discuss the legacy, rhythm, and persistence of Native poetry through the powerful lens of contemporary Indigenous literature and a deep grassroots history that spans over half a century. Let’s pause to listen to the stories shared and celebrate the vibrant cultures shaping our collective future. Below, I have shared three moving poems that remind us why this reclamation matters.
As I pause to look at the world around me with deeper connection and gratitude, I am acutely aware that I am not looking back through a single lens of history; I’m honoring the enduring, living rhythm of the First Peoples who have always owned this land. Enjoy the beautiful words of Mvskoke Nation poet Joy Harjo as she reminds us to remember:
“Remember” by Joy Harjo, member of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation and the 23rd U.S. Poet Laureate via poets.org
Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the stars’ stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother’s, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people
are you.
Remember you are this universe and this
universe is you.
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.
“Remember.” Copyright © 1983 by Joy Harjo from She Had Some Horses by Joy Harjo. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
“Humans are vulnerable and rely on the kindnesses of the earth and the sun; we exist together in a sacred field of meaning.” Joy Harjo
Motivation Mondays: Beyond Columbus Day. Honoring Indigenous Resilience
Understanding the importance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day and its roots can help us fully appreciate the power of the modern Indigenous voices we celebrate today. Reclaiming a cultural perspective isn’t a fleeting trend; it is a hard-fought narrative fifty years in the making: In 1977, an international delegation of Indigenous nations proposed the idea at a United Nations conference in Geneva to address discrimination across the Americas. This initial spark led to years of discussion, denial, and set-asides. Some folks wanted to maintain the Columbus narrative to the exclusion of Native American voices, even though historical records showed something quite different.
By 1992, Berkeley, California, became the first U.S. city to officially implement the holiday. They intentionally timed the change for October 12, 1992, the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival, to reclaim the date and focus on survival, resilience, and the continued presence of Indigenous people.
After decades of steady growth at the municipal and state levels, the movement gained national momentum on October 8, 2021, when President Joseph Biden made the first-ever presidential proclamation officially recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Today, we celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day to move beyond old, incomplete histories and recognize the rich, living presence of Native cultures. We are not just looking at the past; we are celebrating the people who are right here, shaping our collective future. The words in the poem below by Rainy Dawn Ortiz speak so beautifully to this truth:
More Than Something Else” by Rainy Dawn Ortiz 1973–2023 via poets.org
Something Else.
Some one else
Some where else
That place is here,
In my home,
We are here.
I am brown,
Brown hair,
Brown eyes,
Like cookies Feather tells me, and I like to think it’s perfectly
cooked Pueblo cookies.
My kids are something else,
9 different shades of brown,
All beautiful.
My grandkids are something else,
4 brown eyes, 2 blue eyes,
All Native,
Definitely something else, as I watch them be rowdy, be loving,
be here in this world.
We are here
On this earth
In this time and place
In our homes,
On our lands,
In the cities,
With our families, laughing loudly, cooking together, protecting
each other.
We are something else.
With our songs
Our dances.
We pray with cornmeal,
Eagle feathers,
Medicine bundles,
Burn some sage, make sure to acknowledge the four directions,
as the sun comes up.
We are the something else,
Who were here,
To greet Christopher Columbus
We were born from
This earth,
Crawled out of the center,
Of our mother’s womb; we are important; we are strong.
We are something else,
We are Pueblo people, Plains people, Forest People, Desert
people, Nomadic people, Cliff dwellers, Ocean fishers, Lake and
river fishers, hunters, medicine collectors, horse riders, artists,
speakers, lawyers, doctors, teachers, we are human beings.
We are something else,
We are Native People,
Indigenous to this land.
We are a proud,
Something else.
Copyright © 2020 by Rainy Dawn Ortiz. Originally published with the Shelter in Poems initiative on poets.org
More Below
“To write in service of the writing, not the ego, is a radical act.” Beth Kempton, The Way of the Fearless Writer
Motivation Mondays: Breathe. Write. Live. Repeat.
The breath of the world flows through you.
Don’t let it stagnate.
Inhale.
Be still.
Exhale.
Be still.
Keep on breathing.
Keep on writing.
That’s all you have to do.
Flowing in rhythm, in sync with life itself.
Beth Kempton, The Way of the Fearless Writer
BREATHE
I am still reading Beth Kempton’s The Way of the Fearless Writer, so this isn’t a review, but a reflection inspired by the passage above, which was recently shared in a writing class. “The breath of the world flows through you. Don’t let it stagnate.” Those words stayed with me. We breathe without thinking, yet when we stop to notice our breath, we don’t overthink it. It is the natural rhythm of our soul guiding us through life’s daily chores. We can choose to become present and witness the movement of our breath. We inhale. We pause, and we are still. We exhale. We pause, and we are still again. Memories flow in and out.
In the study of breathwork or pranayama in the yoga tradition, the pause, space, or retention between breaths is called Kumbhaka in Sanskrit. With every breath, we experience Antara Kumbhaka, an inner pause held after a full inhalation, and Bahya Kumbhaka, an outer pause held after a full exhalation. The stillness between our in/out breath is called Madhya. This stillness, and each pause, sharpens our awareness and connects us to the source of life. Each pause, each still moment, confirms that we are still here in the land of the living, and connects us to the divine within. Take a moment to notice your breath; let its beauty calm and speak to you. Perhaps writing asks the same of us: to pause long enough to take in the world around us, listen to what stirs within, and go with the flow, expressing it through a medium of our choice.
WRITE
“Keep on breathing. Keep on writing.” I love the simplicity of that instruction. Sometimes the hardest part of writing is letting ourselves write freely. We censor a thought before it reaches the page. We worry about grammar, structure, whether something is good enough, or what someone else might think. But what if we let the words flow? What if, like every breath we take, we let the words flow; we labor less over being perfect or over writing a perfectly constructed sentence. We write as we breathe. We’ll have time to revisit, rearrange, polish, or even discard some of our words. The first task is to write, trust the flow, and allow the words to come. Last week in my writing class, I got so into the flow of a story I was writing that time flew by, and I came out of my peaceful reverie when a pop-up warned me that the class was ending in 3 minutes. I had spent 90 minutes engrossed in my writing.
“It (Rhabdo) can kill you. I’ve always been completely honest about that.” Greg Glassman, founder of CrossFit
Motivation Mondays | Rhabdo: Warning Signs for Runners
Sabrina Pace-Humphreys, ultrarunner: During the 2026 UTMB, experienced ultrarunner Sabrina Pace-Humphreys became so seriously ill that she had to be airlifted from the course. She was later diagnosed with exertional rhabdomyolysis. Her experience is a powerful reminder that rhabdo can strike highly conditioned endurance athletes, too. Rhabdo: Real Runners, Real Stories: Listen to Sabrina’s story on the Runner’s World UK Podcast
Until I experienced a nightmarish Rhabdo episode, a medical condition that almost cost me my life, I had never heard of Rhabdomyolysis. Runners are often conditioned to believe that “grit” is the ultimate running virtue. We wear our blisters like badges of honor, celebrate pushing through the wall, and romanticize the mental toughness it takes to keep moving when everything hurts. I was one of those true grit runners, but at around Mile 19 of the Boston Marathon in April, I learned a terrifying lesson: sometimes, the very grit that gets us to the starting line can become dangerous when it keeps us from listening to our bodies.
Frankly, I wasn’t feeling tired. I wasn’t experiencing what some might see as normal late-race marathon fatigue. It was my 14th marathon, not a bad day or training cycle. I trained for it as I did for my other marathons. Yet, suddenly, I was losing control of my body, and I had no idea why. I was terrified. Up until Mile 19, I was having a typical marathon day, pacing, fueling, hydrating, jeffing to my run-walk-run Galloway method, when BOOM, I was listing to the right like a plane in free fall.
My muscles were no longer responding the way they should, and I couldn’t fathom what was happening to me. Other runners around me understandably thought I was exhausted from the marathon. I didn’t know enough to tell them otherwise. I only knew it felt frighteningly wrong. Cheri Whitt, my running coach, was equally baffled and concerned. She helped steady me as we headed for the finish line. As I stumbled, slowing with each painful step, another runner (a runner’s guide), Joe, stepped in to help hold me up. None of us knew my muscles were rapidly breaking down. By the time I crossed the finish line, I was unconscious.
What followed was a serious medical crisis, a three-day stay in the ICU at Tufts Medical Center, and a diagnosis I had never expected or heard of in my life: severe exertional rhabdomyolysis known as rhabdo. I narrowly survived.
Today, part of my Motivation for sharing this post, other rhabdo stories, as well as my story, is to make sure all runners and other sports enthusiasts know something I didn’t know that day: what rhabdo is and how its warning signs can present. My wish is that runners learn the causes, hidden risks, and critical Rhabdo warning signs. As a long-distance runner still in recovery, I believe we all need to learn to differentiate normal marathon fatigue from a life-threatening crisis.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), about 26,000 people develop rhabdomyolysis every year. Additional research has shown that from 2020-2019 the numbers were as high as 40,000. You may not know what is happening to you. The runners beside you most likely won’t know and might assume you have bonked, hit the proverbial wall, or crashed out from fatigue. Some of the symptoms might even be mistaken for the exhaustion, muscle pain, weakness, or physical distress associated with endurance events. That is why recognizing when something feels different, sudden, severe, or profoundly wrong matters.
Rhabdo: Real Runners, Real Stories
Research on exertional rhabdomyolysis, the statistics above, and the 5 stories I have shared show what rhabdo can do. The experiences of runners who have lived through it, and those whose stories ended tragically, remind us why recognizing the warning signs matters. Blockquotes throughout this post summarize five athletes’ publicly reported experiences, with links to their full stories. Here is a link to a 6th story shared by Kyra Fancey. I’ve added a new summary to this post. Read them to learn about our unique stories and experiences with rhabdomyolysis, aka rhabdo.
“ Strenuous exercise, including marathon running, can result in damage to skeletal muscle cells, a process known as exertional rhabdomyolysis.” PM Clarkson
Motivation Mondays | Rhabdo: Warning Signs for Runners
Aaron Kuen, marathoner: Aaron was having what seemed like the race of his life and was approaching the finish of the California International Marathon when he suddenly collapsed near Mile 26. What looked like an extraordinary athletic performance became a devastating medical emergency associated with rhabdomyolysis. Aaron remains in a coma. Rhabdo: Real Runners, Real Stories: Read Aaron Kuen’s story at Outside
What Is Rhabdomyolysis? Exertional Rhabdo?
According to The Cleveland Clinic, Rhabdomyolysis occurs when damaged skeletal muscle cells break down and release their contents, including myoglobin, creatine kinase (CK), potassium, and other substances, into the bloodstream. In severe cases, this process can disrupt the body’s chemistry and damage the kidneys. Complications can include acute kidney injury, compartment syndrome, dangerous electrolyte abnormalities, and abnormal heart rhythms. Severe rhabdo can be life-threatening, and that is how I ended up in the ICU at Tufts Medical Center for 3 days.
Exertional rhabdomyolysis is rhabdo associated with strenuous physical activity. It can occur after unusually intense or unfamiliar exercise, a sudden increase in training load, or exercise combined with other contributing factors. Heat, inadequate hydration, recent illness, certain medications or substances, and some underlying genetic or metabolic conditions may increase risk. Yes, it can happen to trained athletes. It is a medical condition, NOT a disease.
