Haute Remembrance of 9/11 in Boston: The 15th Annual Commemoration

Sunday, 9/11/2016 is here and marks the 15th Annual Commemoration of the day that changed the world forever. As a country, President Obama has asked us to mark this day to serve in some way, to participate in a beautiful humanitarian effort or initiative by giving back to the community in which we live and finding a way to volunteer services and so forth. Throughout America there are various events taking place to honor and remember loved ones.

And in honor of those so tragically killed on that horrific day in world history, in Boston, the Mass 9/11 Fund is again hosting various activities for the families of 9/11 and it is my privilege to share with my Haute Living readers that Governor Charlie Baker and Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito will join at the Reading of Names, the official Commemoration Observation in the House Chambers, and at the private reception at the Taj Hotel, formerly the original Ritz Carlton Hotel located on Arlington and Newbury Street in the Back Bay just across the street where the garden of remembrance is located. And Mayor Marty Walsh will attend the Wreath Laying and State House events. For more information, send an email message to info@massfund.org and/or please visit their website at www.massfund.org.

This year the annual 9/11 VIGIL at the Boston Common Bandstand Gazebo, is between 6-8PM in Boston, Massachusetts. The 9/11 Vigil is in honor of my mother Sonia Mercedes Morales Puopolo who perished on American Airlines flight 11, the first hijacked plane to hit the Twin Towers on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 and all those who died on that day.  She was a mere two seats away from Mohamed Atta, the on-board leader of the terrorist attack. Her entire body was never found, but some remains were discovered 11 months after the disaster. They found her ring as it was recovered completely intact, still on her left hand amidst 1.6 million tons of rubble at the World Trade Center. It was a miracle!

SONIA’S RING: 11 WAYS TO HEAL MY HEART, www.soniasring.com, includes the entire story and is about healing and love. Filled with comprehensive meditations and mantras to be the best you, how to create excellence and heal your heart,  SONIA’S RING provides techniques and tools on how to move past your pain, forge forward with perseverance and forgiveness on a pathway of healing and transformation, and live with more gratitude and love.  It is about spiritual awakening and mindfulness.
Thanks to Dr. Gregory Payne, Dean of Emerson College Communication Studies and the Emerson College Communication Politics and Law Student Association, who have worked very hard to continue this tradition every year since 2001, it is the oldest continuous commemoration of the attacks of September 11, 2001 where people come together to share poems and prayers, and readings and songs.

A day of remembrance, 9/11, is a moment for families, friends, and communities to reflect on this historical event and contemplate change as a pathway towards healing. The only way to move forward from such devastating hate, tragedy and heart ache is with love.  As our founder and publisher Kamal Hotchandani says, “Haute Living, we built our platform on celebrating excellence.” Part of being excellent or celebrating excellence is being the best you can be, so the question is, what kind act will you do, what way can you serve, and remember 9/11, how and in what way can you bring excellence to your life today, tomorrow, this week, this year? How can you bring more excellence into your world?