Welcome to Mirth and Motivation!
Before you leave a comment, STOP, consider this: Our comments are part of our digital footprint on the internet. They tell the world how we think and respond to information. I know YOU took time out of your busy schedule and landed here. I’m rooting for you to say something inspiring that will help others who read my posts. THANK YOU! ❤
“I have always thought of Christmas as a good time; a kind, forgiving, generous, pleasant time; a time when men and women seem to open their hearts freely, and so I say, God bless Christmas!” Charles Dickens
Motivation Mondays: Cherish Christmas & Holidays
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! It has been a very challenging year for so many but we stayed motivated to push on and push through. If you are reading this post, I want to say: Thank you for your support, blog love, visits and comments. The year is drawing to a close and as we gather with loved ones, let us all remember to be grateful for what is and remember to give of what we have to those folks in need. The holidays is not just for enjoying our abundance, it is for sharing it too. Below is my yearly letter to Santa… it doesn’t change because situations don’t always change in our world but we can do better.
A Letter To Santa
Dearest Santa,
Thank you for the blessings you showered on us this year. Thank you for the new friends and fresh opportunities. We are all grateful… My wish for the coming year is more goodwill, grace and abundance in the world, and less misery, meanness and scarcity!
Please don’t mix these two up like you did last year! 🙂
With love & gratitude to all,
xoxo
…
Merry Christmas!
Happy Holidays!
Buone vacanze!
Joyeuses Fêtes!
ハッピーバカンス！
节日快乐！
أعيادا سعيدة!
Maligayang Pasko!
விழாக்கால வாழ்த்துக்கள்!
छुट्टियों की शुभकामनाएं!
С праздником!
С Рождеством Христовым!
تعطیلات مبارک!
हैप्पी छुट्टियाँ!
¡Felices Fiestas!
גליקלעך האָלידייַס!
Շնորհավոր Տոն!
Boas festas!
To many people, holidays are not voyages of discovery, but a ritual of reassurance. Philip Andrew Adams
Motivation Mondays: Cherish Christmas & Holidays
Motivation Mondays: Cherish Christmas & Holidays
What do you cherish about the holiday season? The holidays are a time of celebration, reflection and gift giving… Cherish your loved ones and all the things and people that are making this day special for you. While we enjoy our gatherings, we can pause and remember those who are no longer with us and give thanks for their lives…
Holidays by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The holiest of all holidays are those
Kept by ourselves in silence and apart;
The secret anniversaries of the heart,
When the full river of feeling overflows;–
The happy days unclouded to their close;
The sudden joys that out of darkness start
As flames from ashes; swift desires that dart
Like swallows singing down each wind that blows!
White as the gleam of a receding sail,
White as a cloud that floats and fades in air,
White as the whitest lily on a stream,
These tender memories are;–a fairy tale
Of some enchanted land we know not where,
But lovely as a landscape in a dream.
The details for Motivation Mondays are below. Join in! The themes for NOV/DEC 2017 are:
11/05 — 05 Guy Fawkes, 7 Election Day, 10 Science Day, 11 Veterans Day
11/12 — 13 World Kindness Day, 14 Diabetes Day, 16 International Day of Tolerance, 17 National Unfriend Day
11/19 — 20 Universal Children’s Day, 21 World TV Day, 23 Thanksgiving Day
11/26 — 27 Cyber Monday, 28 Giving Tuesday
12/01 – World Aids Day, 12/02 Abolition of Slavery,
12/03 – Start of Advent, 12/7 Pearl Harbor Remembrance, 12/8 Immaculate Conception, 12/9 Anti-Corruption Day,
12/10 – Human Rights Day, 12/11 Green Day, 12/12 Start of Hanukkah,
12/17 – 12/18 International Migrant’s Day, 12/20 End of Hanukkah, 12/21 Winter Solstice, 12/23 Super Saturday
12/24 – 12/25 Christmas, 12/26 Start of Kwanzaa, 12/31 New Year’s Eve
Are You Looking for Ways to Stay Creative in 2017?
– Join the Daily Post Post-a-day or Post-a-week Challenge.
— Join the BlogHer Writing Lab
More Below Read more…
Photo Challenge: FAVORITES
“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.” Swami Vivekananda
Photo Challenge: FAVORITES
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain. Joseph Campbell
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. Robert Louis Stevenson
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart. Helen Keller
FAVORITES: For my final photo challenge favorite selections for 2017, I decided to share some photos I didn’t get to use and a few I did. Since we are in the season of holiday gifting, I also chose to share some of my foods from around the world; Try The World food selections are a great gift idea and the collages always make me hungry. I have a few more photos to share for this list still in the works.For those of you who are curious about the mother holding a baby sculpture, it is part of a nine piece sculpture series created by internationally recognized artist/sculptor, Joy Brown. It is across from the West 96th St subway station in Manhattan and is called One Holding Small One. I will feature all nine in a post. They have influences from her childhood in Japan and, like all the wonderful street art I come across in NYC, this series warms my heart. You can read more about her works in the three articles below.
The bottom shot is called Sailor Kiss and it is a depiction of a famous post World War II photograph taken at Times Square. This equally popular Street art depiction is by Street artist extraordinaire, Eduardo Kobraa Brazilian artist who uses kaleidoscopic color ranges to create beautiful murals and paintings on walls around the world. This one is painted against a wall by the High Line walking trail in lower Manhattan. Kobra’s work always takes my breath away beacye the colors are vibrant and the mural ais huge… Definitely a favorite. Since I love quotes, I added some of my favorites from Brainy Quotes top 100 selections. Do come back for my other photos.
READ: Thousand-Pound Bronzes on the Upper West Side By Paige Williams
Adorable Bronze Figures by Joy Brown Arrive on the Broadway Malls in NYC By AFineLyne
Joy Brown on Broadway
Eduardo Kobra: Biography by Nicole Figuerola
“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.” Amelia Earhart
Photo Challenge: FAVORITES
Photo Challenge: FAVORITES
It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. Henry David Thoreau
Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else. Margaret Mead
When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves. Viktor E. Frankl
We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving. Friedrich Nietzsche
Stay tuned for my selections from my 2017 photo files. Thank you all for your generous support through your likes and comments and social media shares. Deeply appreciated!
More Below! Read more…
Motivation Mondays: MORAL COMPASS
“The self is just our operation center, our consciousness, our moral compass. So, if we want to act more effectively in the world, we have to get to know ourselves better.” Gary Wolf
Motivation Mondays: MORAL COMPASS
Make Your Bed… University of Texas at Austin 2014 Commencement Address – Admiral William H. McRaven
Your inner knowing is your only true compass. Joy Page
Definition moral compass: a natural feeling that makes people know what is right and wrong and how they should behave: Cambridge U Dictionary
Truth lies within a little and certain compass, but error is immense. Henry St. John
Set your compass to beauty, humor, and grief; stay the course no matter what, and I’ll support you with everything I’ve got. Chris Jordan
It’s the community that helps form our moral compass. It’s those attitudes that I’ve remembered through my entire lifetime. John Morgridge
A Compass is an instrument that guides travelers; especially sailors on the sea/road. A Moral Compass is also an attitude we adopt towards life and the events that shape our lives. We gauge our reactions and actions on a moral footing that informs our choices. We all need that gauge and we all have our own that we follow and our compass adds to our life’s blueprints and karmic record. Whether we choose the path of positive or negative action, we accumulate a body of works that help us contribute to the world we inhabit. What does your compass say about you? Our moral compass is shaped by our environment, our choices and the life lessons we embrace as we travel the path we call life. We often say that to change the world, we need to change ourselves first.
Admiral McRaven’s 10 lessons that he learned as a Navy Seal trainee are examples of a compass of life lessons that can guide us throughout the journey: 1. Make your bed. 2. Find people to paddle with you. 3. Measure the size of heart, not flippers. 4. Get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward. 5. Don’t be afraid of the circuses. 6. Sometimes you have to slide down obstacles head first. 7. Don’t back down from the sharks. 8. You must be your very best in the darkest moments. 9. Start singing when you’re up to your neck in mud. Hope for everyone. 10. Don’t ever, ever ring the bell. Our moral compass is developed over time and as we master certain behavior patterns, both good and bad, a pattern develops that becomes our brand… our face to the world. How are you shaping yours?
READ: Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…And Maybe the World by William H. McRaven
“On the ocean of life let your mind be the ship and your heart be the compass.” James David Manning
Motivation Mondays: MORAL COMPASS
Conscience is a man’s compass. Vincent Van Gogh
What comes first, the compass or the clock? Before one can truly manage time (the clock), it is important to know where you are going, what your priorities and goals are, in which direction you are headed (the compass). Dennis Merritt Jones
It is necessary to keep one’s compass in one’s eyes and not in the hand, for the hands execute, but the eye judges. Michelangelo
If one has no compass, when one doesn’t know where one stands and where one wants to go, one can deduce that one has no leadership or interest in shaping events. Helmut Kohl
Families are the compass that guide us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter. Brad Henry
How are you shaping your compass on your life journey? If we want to be honest, some of us might admit that it’s a bumpy road with pitfalls and perspective shifters. If we spend our time worrying about everything that crosses our path, then we create more to keep us on edge. In a recent article I read by author/blogger, Mark Manson, he says we spend way too much time traveling on someone else’s compass vis a vis living the expectations we assume others have of us. To take charge of life, we must take charge of our stuff and understand the three 3 Ideas That Can Change Your Life 2017. To paraphrase what he said in several pages, 1. Don’t take stuff personally: it’s not about you. 2. Your assumptions are wrong: Shift your perspective. 3. Take a chance on life: Be present and spontaneous… Live.Live your own life not vicariously through someone else’s.
Think about those mornings in traffic when the guy cuts you off as he rushes to catch a train… It’s not about you. Think about that fellow blogger who didn’t respond to your specific comment on a post…. your comment was valid he/she turned to respond to a wailing child and forgot to come back or simply moved forward. Remember that event you wanted to go to? Remember the compliment you withheld from another creative? Take a chance and just do it. Spontaneity is the very essence of a life lived well. If you plan every single move, you close the door to amazing miracles and opportunities that might come your way… live larger than your myopic perspective of “shoulds.”
Come back for more!
The details for Motivation Mondays are below. Join in! The themes for NOV/DEC 2017 are:
11/05 — 05 Guy Fawkes, 7 Election Day, 10 Science Day, 11 Veterans Day
11/12 — 13 World Kindness Day, 14 Diabetes Day, 16 International Day of Tolerance, 17 National Unfriend Day
11/19 — 20 Universal Children’s Day, 21 World TV Day, 23 Thanksgiving Day
11/26 — 27 Cyber Monday, 28 Giving Tuesday
12/01 – World Aids Day, 12/02 Abolition of Slavery,
12/03 – Start of Advent, 12/7 Pearl Harbor Remembrance, 12/8 Immaculate Conception, 12/9 Anti-Corruption Day,
12/10 – Human Rights Day, 12/11 Green Day, 12/12 Start of Hanukkah,
12/17 – 12/18 International Migrant’s Day, 12/20 End of Hanukkah, 12/21 Winter Solstice, 12/23 Super Saturday
12/24 – 12/25 Christmas, 12/26 Start of Kwanzaa, 12/31 New Year’s Eve
Are You Looking for Ways to Stay Creative in 2017?
– Join the Daily Post Post-a-day or Post-a-week Challenge.
— Join the BlogHer Writing Lab
More Below Read more…
