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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. That said, 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 this site, hence the dodgy title. After the market crashed and we were downsized, I decided to keep it going. Therefore, the main goal was, and remains, to encourage myself and others to keep moving forward. It 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.
Nevertheless, 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?
Read more…
“On this International Day of Peace, let us all be inspired by the courage of those who champion peace in neighborhoods, classrooms, and communities. And let’s call on world leaders to invest in a peaceful future for all people.” António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General
Motivation Mondays: 12 Ways to Honor International Day of Peace & World Gratitude Day
Introduction to Peace One Day ( 2016)
Peace is not just made at conference tables, but in classrooms, neighbourhoods, and everywhere people meet with open minds and open hearts. António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General
It is only through inner peace that we can have true outer freedom. Sri Chinmoy
Every year on September 21, we have the opportunity to observe two occasions that seem especially meaningful together: the International Day of Peace and World Gratitude Day. The United Nations established the International Day of Peace to strengthen the ideals of peace within and among nations and peoples. The 2026 theme is “Invest in Peace — For Everyone, Everywhere, Every Day.” It reminds us that peace is not simply the absence of war. We build it through dignity, cooperation, dialogue, compassion, and the choices we make every day.
We are living through a complicated global moment. Conflicts are causing tremendous human suffering, communities are experiencing deep divisions, and many families are dealing with economic pressures and uncertainty. In its 2026 Peace Day message, the United Nations describes conflicts as growing in scale and complexity, while emphasizing that individuals and communities can still build peace through dialogue, inclusion, service, and respect for human dignity.
Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace, Saint Francis Prayer via catholic.org
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.
Six Ways to Honor the International Day of Peace
1. Practice peace where you are.
Peace begins much closer to home than we sometimes imagine. Choose patience over anger, conversation over confrontation, and understanding over immediately judging someone whose views differ from yours.
2. Listen to someone with a different perspective.
We do not have to agree with one another to listen respectfully. Make room for a conversation with someone from a different generation, culture, faith, background, or life experience. Listening can be one of our simplest acts of peace.
3. Perform an act of service.
Volunteer, help a neighbor, mentor a young person, donate to a food pantry, or support an organization doing humanitarian or community work. The UN’s 2026 message reminds us that ordinary people from volunteers, advocates, and community leaders to peacemakers help build peace from the ground up.
4. Be mindful of the words you put into the world.
Before posting, commenting, forwarding, or responding online, ask: Does this add understanding or more hostility? Refusing to spread misinformation, cruelty, or unnecessary division is one small way to contribute to a more peaceful public square.
5. Make peace personal.
Is there someone you need to forgive, apologize to, call, or understand better? Not every broken relationship can or should be restored, but sometimes peace begins when one person decides not to keep feeding an old conflict.
6. Create a moment of stillness.
Pray, meditate, walk in nature, sit quietly, or observe a few minutes of silence for people living through war and violence. Let that quiet moment remind you that peace in the world is connected to the peace we cultivate within ourselves. #InvestInPeace.
READ: Motivation Mondays: International Day of Peace & World Gratitude Day
Motivation Mondays: PEACE & GRATITUDE
MOTIVATION 2020: 33 GRATITUDE TIPS FOR THE HOLIDAYS!
Motivation Mondays: Remembrance Ruck
“To recognize the service, sacrifice, and contributions of the post-9/11 generation of veterans, service members, and military families while honoring those who are no longer with us.” NYC.gov Event Charter detailing the tribute’s scope.
Motivation Mondays: Remembrance Ruck
“We ruck so we remember. We remember so their legacy lives on.” 9/11 Ruck to Remember Official Motto
“For many of our veterans, carrying a ruck was a part of their everyday service. A symbol of resilience and endurance.” Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani
The Weight We Carry: Walking in Remembrance Across the Brooklyn Bridge: On a rainy Sunday morning, September 13, 2026, over 1,000 folks from around the city and beyond gathered at Walt Whitman Park (Cadman Plaza) to participate in the inaugural, city-sponsored NYC Remembrance Ruck. The NYC Department of Veterans’ Services organized the event in partnership with New York Road Runners. Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani joined us as more than 1,000 New Yorkers gathered despite a heavy downpour to complete the route. The event honored the service and sacrifice of the post-9/11 generation of veterans, service members, and military families, and remembered those who are no longer with us.
Over 1,000 participants and I walked with weighted backpacks from Brooklyn’s Walt Whitman Park (Cadman Plaza), crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, and concluded our journey at Foley Square in Manhattan. Many of us carried gallons of water in our backpacks, which the event organizers provided. Some carried extra gallons by hand. Many military personnel carried their rucksacks; some were fully and heavily loaded.
It was a solemn and poignant event as we signed in, gathered in the park, and watched a small group of military personnel perform Military Funeral Honors. Then we heard speeches from Mayor Mamdani and several of his commissioners, each sharing beautifully how important the occasion was and why we must honor those who served and remember the lives lost. They read the names of those being remembered, and we observed a moment of silence afterward. (See uploaded videos TBD)
Soon after, we started our walk toward the Brooklyn Bridge, headed into Manhattan, with Foley Square as our final destination. It was a 1.5-mile walk, and it went by pretty quickly as we trudged along in the rain. The Brooklyn Bridge has an incline, but we were fine, as the rain washed away our weariness and cleansed us in ways far deeper than we even understood.
People from all walks of life were there: the young, the older, parents with children, military personnel, runners, walkers, and more. We all came out in remembrance of those lost and in honor of the veterans, service members, and families whose lives were shaped by service after 9/11.
To me, the rainfall was the tears of angels joining us to recognize all who served in many capacities before, during, and after 9/11. I connected with several people, and we all agreed it was worth getting drenched because those being honored had carried burdens far greater than our own. Some made the ultimate sacrifice; others continue to carry the lasting weight of service. We remember them. We honor them. We will never forget.
Read more…
“No day shall erase you from the memory of time.” Virgil, The Aeneid
25 Years Later Remembering the Lives Lost on September 11
CNN10 Special Edition: Remembering 9/11, 25 Years Later
September 11: The Names We Carry
Twenty-five years later, we remember. We honor the nearly 3,000 lives lost on September 11, 2001, and hold close their families, friends, colleagues, first responders, survivors, and all whose lives were forever changed by that tragic day. Billy Collins’ profoundly moving poem The Names reminds us that behind the enormity of 9/11 are individual human lives, “citizens, workers, mothers and fathers,” daughters and sons, each with a name, a story, and people who loved them. Its quiet beauty gives language to a grief that still lives in our collective memory and reminds us why we keep saying their names.
The words/quote above by Virgil are permanently displayed in the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, with letters forged from recovered World Trade Center steel. The Museum describes the quotation as expressing the promise that those who were lost will never be forgotten. Do visit the 9/11 Memorial & Museum when you visit NYC. It is highly recommended. Remembering 9/11 and the loved ones of all who lost their lives on that tragic day. Read the poignant poem below. We remember. We honor. We will never forget.
The Names – Poem by Billy Collins via Poem-Hunter
Yesterday, I lay awake in the palm of the night.
A soft rain stole in, unhelped by any breeze,
And when I saw the silver glaze on the windows,
I started with A, with Ackerman, as it happened,
Then Baxter and Calabro,
Davis and Eberling, names falling into place
As droplets fell through the dark.
Names printed on the ceiling of the night.
Names slipping around a watery bend.
Twenty-six willows on the banks of a stream.
In the morning, I walked out barefoot
Among thousands of flowers
Heavy with dew like the eyes of tears,
And each had a name —
Fiori inscribed on a yellow petal
Then Gonzalez and Han, Ishikawa and Jenkins.
Names written in the air
And stitched into the cloth of the day.
A name under a photograph taped to a mailbox.
Monogram on a torn shirt,
I see you spelled out on storefront windows
And on the bright unfurled awnings of this city.
I say the syllables as I turn a corner —
Kelly and Lee,
Medina, Nardella, and O’Connor.
When I peer into the woods,
I see a thick tangle where letters are hidden
As in a puzzle concocted for children.
Parker and Quigley in the twigs of an ash,
Rizzo, Schubert, Torres, and Upton,
Secrets in the boughs of an ancient maple.
Names written in the pale sky.
Names rising in the updraft amid buildings.
Names silent in stone
Or cried out behind a door.
Names blown over the earth and out to sea.
In the evening — weakening light, the last swallows.
A boy on a lake lifts his oars.
A woman by a window puts a match to a candle,
And the names are outlined on the rose clouds —
Vanacore and Wallace,
(let X stand, if it can, for the ones unfound)
Then Young and Ziminsky, the final jolt of Z.
Names etched on the head of a pin.
One name spanning a bridge, another undergoing a tunnel.
A blue name needled into the skin.
Names of citizens, workers, mothers and fathers,
The bright-eyed daughter, the quick son.
Alphabet of names in a green field.
Names in the small tracks of birds.
Names lifted from a hat
Or balanced on the tip of the tongue.
Names wheeled into the dim warehouse of memory.
So many names, there is barely room on the walls of the heart.*This poem is dedicated to the victims of September 11 and to their survivors. Billy Collins
