The ME-gan Lifestyle; Beauty, Health, Nutrition and Taste…All Wrapped Up In Nature’s Goodness!
28 Sunday Apr 2013
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in28 Sunday Apr 2013
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in26 Friday Apr 2013
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english cucumbers, gardening, health in a glass, Hearts of Romaine, Juicing, Mother Nature, quench your thirst, refreshing summertime treat, rutabagas
TGIF! Yes indeed, and we’re starting the weekend off by drinking to MOTHER NATURE!
Enjoy of glass of her champagne and reap the goodness. This green juice we made this evening consists of 1 head of Hearts of Romaine, 1 English cucumber, and 1 rutabaga. It is so delicious…sweet & smooth.
What do you get when you cross a turnip with a cabbage? Any bunny will tell you, a rutabaga!
The name “rutabaga” comes from the Swedish word “rotabagge.” “Rota” means “root.” It is often called Swedish turnip. I never knew, did you?
Try eating rutabaga for constipation. I hear that due to their mustard oil content, they can cause gas, uggg. I also read that they should not be consumed by anyone with kidney troubles. They have a rich vitamin C content which is known to help reduce the breathing difficulties in asthma patients. I wish I would have known this while raising my son, who was born with bronchial asthma. Here’s a good one for my two daughters who are with child, rutabaga stimulates milk production and also enhances digestion and stamina.
It is rich in potassium, which goes hand in hand for decreasing risk of heart stroke. It also helps in lowering high blood pressure. Wow…what a plethora of health and wellness in just one of the many foods we’ve been blessed with on this earth.
The English cucumber, similar to the Persian cucumber, has thinner skin and few and smaller seeds (seeds are the source of the sometimes bitter taste in a cucumber), try these wholesome goodies in your next salad – Mmmm! They are easily digested, and can quench your thirst. What a refreshing treat just in time for summertime!
Romaine lettuce is rich in vitamin C and beta-carotene which benefits the heart. It’s fiber helps keep the digestive system healthy. It lowers cholesterol by helping the body to make more bile. Plus, they are rich in potassium which is another heart healthy nutrient and aids in lowering blood pressure.
So, what can we learn from this “green” juicing delight? Once again, we have discovered that everything we need to maximize a healthy body is, and always has been, right outside the back door in the vegetable garden!
Mother nature does the work and we reap the many, many health benefits. Now that is a great deal.
So, lets grab a hoe and a shovel and get busy planting our very own garden! 🙂
GREEN ME-gan love to you!
Mary
25 Thursday Apr 2013
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FOOD PICTURES, Gluten Free, health, Healthy Eating, inspiration, John Quincy Adams Quote, LOVE, obesity, Vegan
I don’t know about you, but I could stand to be inspired more these days! Usually I am diligently working to keep myself positive, but my goodness…in today’s world, I find it so easy to fall into a depression or get ‘unmotivated.’ My suggestion? Let’s all motivate and inspire each other. Keep the negative at bay and surround yourself with those who lift you up, not bring you down. Let’s all be leaders and when others need us most, let’s be there for them!
We all have some gift that others could use. Use your talent in any way you can so others can reap from it.
As John Quincy Adams quoted:
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
I want to inspire healthy eating right now. Obesity is on the rise, and we see it all around; at work, in our neighborhoods, in our own family. I myself could eat into oblivion. Staying fit and healthy does not come easy; it takes mental and physical strength, will power, and especially the desire to live long and be strong…for yourself, for those you love and for those who love you. No one can make you do the right thing. So look into the mirror and find that strength from within. Find your inspiration.
Here are a few photo’s of some of my favorite ME-ganly delicious and healthy dishes. Food that nourishes doesn’t have to be YUCKY!
Love that inspires to you all!
Mary
21 Sunday Apr 2013
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better health, booze pushers, cravings, faith, food pushers, food temptations, Gluten Free, goals, god's peace, Happiness, Illness, overcoming food addiction, perseverance, Philippians 4:7, The ME-gan Lifestyle, Vegan
Some people want it all, and some people have it all. Some want not as much, and some have very little. It’s a diverse world to say the least.
When it comes to food, I usually want it all. I say this and snicker, but it’s true. I suppose that people eat for different reasons; some for health, some for pleasure, some out of boredom and stress, and others for pure gluttonous reasons. Much of our eating habits have to do with how we were raised too, that’s what I believe. I don’t know…I don’t have all the answers, I just observe and absorb. It’s probably the most accurate way to get information and decipher it all.
When I first started on the ME-gan Lifestyle path, I was often challenged to have a ‘little’ of this, or a ‘bite’ of that from those closest and dearest to me (imagine that). Those little food temptations were always non-ME-gan foods – the ones I worked so hard to put behind me…the ones that made me sick. I was appalled at how these individuals wanted me to fail at something that had restored my health; brought me happiness and helped me to find ‘myself’ again. I do sincerely detest food and booze pushers – you know…the kind that insist, even after you say ‘no thank you.’ Ugggg, why are they so relentless? What is it that makes them want you to breakdown, malfunction and be unsuccessful? I just don’t get it.
As I’ve been writing about in my series, “What’s Going On With Mary and Her ME-gan World?” I have experimented with reintroducing all foods back to my system for the past 6 months. I must make note that as some people learned this, they would gleam with a sneaky, destructive smile of happiness! I guess I am not surprised, just saddened by it all.
As I left off in my previous posting, my experiment was over. It was time for me to wrap it up, document, and move on. Not so fast. Now that I had proven to myself that I still had the same reactions to the foods I had given up, I walked away with knowledge and knew that I must stay in the ME-gan Lifestyle for my own good. Well…I thought I walked away. It was then that I began to battle some serious food temptations. I remember thinking to myself that even when I first embraced the ME-gan way, I never encountered such harsh cravings. Why now? I had opened up a can of worms. I kept telling myself that once I got through the first 3 months of being strictly ME-gan again, they would subside. It wasn’t that easy. No one knows what tomorrow will bring. Suddenly life was spinning out of control in other areas, and I found myself rationalizing. Excuses; that’s all they were and all they are.
How many times in my life have I learned the lesson that “nothing ‘good‘ ever comes easy?” Many times! And this was nothing more than the same lesson learned.
I guess what it all comes down to is that we must ask ourselves what it is that we truly want. Do we want to be healthier? Happier? More spiritual? Thinner? Better job? Bigger bank roll? Better relationships with our brothers and sisters; mothers and fathers, spouses, friends? Once we are truthful with ourselves, we have to then focus and strive to pursue our goal(s). Letting no one stop us, not even ourselves. We can do whatever we put our minds to, I have proven that to myself. It doesn’t mean the road will be easy, it just means that it can be done.
It’s how passionately we truly want something that determines how far we will go to succeed. We haven’t failed until we give up and stop trying.
Each day brings new challenges, and difficulties do arise. As long as we are doing our best at achieving our own personal goals, then what more is there to be done?
Sometimes things ARE they way they appear in the mirror and sometimes they are NOT. When we think somethings going to be easy, we may later find it’s quite the opposite. Prepare for road blocks, get up when you get knocked down and most of all, keep the faith!
Philippians 4:7 – Then God’s own peace, which is beyond all understanding, will stand guard over your hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus.
Gods love and peace to you.
Mary
19 Friday Apr 2013
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acne, American Idol Judge Randy Jackson, change, depression, Gluten Free, Happiness, health, health research, Illness, lethargy, Migraines, pimples, poor eating habits, Raynauds, reversing years of damange, The ME-gan Lifestyle, Vegan, winds of change
Let me describe what it’s like to find success, health, & happiness, and then to lose them; of course I’m speaking of my success with The ME-gan Lifestyle. After years of suffering and being down right miserable; doctors not being able to provide answers or relief, I was bewildered & amazed at the results I received when I took control of my own life! Listening to my body speak and finally getting involved with my own health by doing research and speaking to knowledgeable people who had so much to share, made all the difference in the world to me. CHANGE began to happen, rather quickly I might add.
As I talk about in my book, The ME-gan Lifestyle, changing my lifestyle allowed me to reverse years of damage and not only find good health again, but MYSELF again! THIS is what I describe as success.
4 solid years of health, happiness, illness & symptom free; life was great! And now, this quote is what comes to mind:
IF it’s not broken, don’t fix it!
Wise words indeed! I tampered, and I paid the piper. Yes, I fell from Eden because I tested the waters and discovered the results were not what I had been told they could possibly be (never any promises of course). First off, let me clarify that I knew better. I knew darn well what I would encounter. BUT…and that’s a big but, I had to do it for documentation reasons; trust me. I’m not going to lie, I was excited about tasting my favorite non-ME-gan foods again, but never for one moment did I expect not to revert back to what I spent years trying to get over. In all fairness, once I decided to do this, I wanted to give it a serious try. Maybe this would prove to be successful after all and a ‘good cleansing’ is all we need to reset ourselves, so to speak. Yes, I wanted to give it a sincere chance and therefore I started off very slowly, as I mentioned previously, once a month. I didn’t notice anything at first, health wise, only that it opened the flood gates of food temptation. My lips had tasted the forbidden fruit. Uh Oh.
Like I have mentioned in my book, and many times throughout this blog, I have no control when it comes to a no-boundaries style of eating. I never know where to begin, and more importantly…where to end. I want it all. Hey, at least I admit my shortcomings! LOL!! The truth is, I work better with boundaries. I think most humans do (rules, laws and regulations!).
So…you get the idea, right? I’m sure you do. So how did my body cry out? Allow me to explain. It turned into a spewing volcano again, for those of you who have read my book, you are familiar with that particular phrase I used to describe my body in all it’s illness & symptoms. Weight gain, pimples, headaches, lethargy, depression, gas & painful bloatiness, and even slight signs of Raynaud’s returned. Oh, throw in an extra dose of bitchiness, because I was not happy at all! What had I done? Uggg…
“Oh well,” I thought to myself, “good experiment.” I had concluded that one cannot reintroduce all the bad foods to their system and expect different results – even after cleansing, and even when re-introducing them slowly. It just doesn’t work; at least with me it hadn’t. And why would anyone want to start eating bad again anyway? Bad is bad – period. Just a stupid thing to do after achieving such stellar results. But now it was time for me to wrap it up, document, and move on.
Here’s where it got difficult. Please come back again, and find out just what I mean and where things stand at this point in time with me and my ME-gan Lifestyle.
May the ‘good’ winds of change blow in YOUR direction!
ME-gan love…
Mary
17 Wednesday Apr 2013
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children with allergies, eating habits in children, fair food, Festival, Gluten Free, Healthy Eating, Illness, obesity, OLMC, Our Lady Of Mt. Carmel Tempe, The ME-gan Lifestyle book, Vegan
This past weekend I participated in my church’s (Our Lady of Mt. Carmel; or aka, OLMC) spring festival. There were games for the kids, raffles, silent auctions and of course, every kind of festival food imaginable: cotton candy, hot dogs, snow cones, pizza, southwestern food and much, much, more.
I set up my display for the ME-gan Lifestyle book and enjoyed the day seeing long time friends and new faces out for an afternoon of family, friends, food & fun.
There were children everywhere and babies galore! Yep… lots of babies; every size, shape, color & disposition. As I scanned the crowd, I could not help but think of how many of those happy children and small babies would grow up to be burdened by an unhealthy life style that would make them miserable. My first reaction was “that is none of my business.” But, still pondered in silence…why does the most fun have to be associated with the absolutely worst food? The answer is both simple and yet profound: I have been conditioned to a comfort zone of food, even when (ironically) it makes your body very uncomfortable. In other words, it’s not a party unless it is bad for you! “Party on..!”
Actually, almost everyone that approached the booth said that they, their child, or someone they knew had to change to a gluten free, vegan (or both) diet. I find it odd that so many newborns & young children have food allergies already! I have my own thoughts on that!
As the adults passed by the display and stopped to inquire about the ME-gan Lifestyle, I was pleased that many of them had heard about my book and a gluten free diet and the vegan concept. The most interesting message was one of ambivalence or an occasional “I know I need to eat more healthy, but it is just too difficult & complicated.” As a reader of this blog, you know that is not the case, but that is what they believe or what they say to themselves. They go on to say, “I know it is the right thing to do, but not right now.” Which only begs the question: “When is the right time?” After you have been attacked by a disease and obesity or worse? Once again, the answer lies in the environment and peer pressure, let alone the assault of television commercials and billboards.
Eat, drink and be merry! Seriously? Well, I guess…but can we keep this decree in ‘context’ with reality?
Very few of us have the insight or strength to see trouble ahead before it smacks us in the face, or the heart, or our weight.
Sunday, as I left the church, I walked away with two very important lessons:
I must say though, there was ONE booth that did sell healthy foods and very pretty plants and flowers! They had fruits & veggies which were donated by our local Fry’s grocery stores.
I seem to think the best thing to do is to create a plan and work that plan until you achieve the desired results. All of which is directed by and accomplished by YOU! It seems to be human nature to either “take action now” or wait for a crisis to do it for us! We are either a follower or a leader. When it comes to YOUR health, which one do you want to be?
It is a true challenge to walk the line between trying to help others with only the best of intent and/or pushing a lifestyle on to those who refuse to listen!
Festive ME-gan love to you all!
P.S. – come back later this week to read more about “What’s Going On With Mary And Her ME-gan World?”
14 Sunday Apr 2013
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compromise, evil, faith, Fall from Eden, food addiction, Gluten Free, God, Healthy Eating, Lifestyle change, Mary Bortel, Straight path, temptation, the enemy, The ME-gan Lifestyle, Vegan
Thanks for coming back for more of my story and testimony about what’s been going on with me and the ME-gan Lifestyle. As last I left off, I was describing how once you get off a straight path, even if just a ‘step,’ it is no longer a straight path; and how once the forbidden fruit, if you will, touched my lips and seeped through my system…like evil on a cold dark night, I began to slowly lose control. It’s TWUE it’s TWUE!!
I describe this venture as…The Fall From Eden.
Once I decided to take the great “Non-ME-gan excursion” it was a down hill spiral, weaved ever so subtle (oh what a tangled web we weave!), so that I not see my own body’s demise quick enough to start recovery before too much damage was done.
It was my choice…I had decided to test what the experts say, perhaps they were right I thought; once the body is cleansed and detoxified, one can slowly reintroduce the “BAD STUFF” back into their system. I dabbled in non- ME-gan eating and low & behold, my body cried out. It was not an overnight catastrophe. Just as good results take time, so do bad results – sometimes. There are times when both are immediate.
Let me start with this… when I first embraced the ME-gan Lifestyle, it took me 1 year to lose 35 lbs. During the past 6 months, eating ’30 to 40 %’ non ME-gan, I gained 15 lbs back. But weight is the least of it (I think); my headaches came back (not full-blown migraines), pimples came back; lethargy came back, depression came back, achy joints came back, and I even noticed some of my Raynaud’s returning. SHOCKING? You decide.
As I said in my previous blog, I started to eat no-boundaries style once a month. It soon turned into twice a month, and then eventually got to once a week. I never did it daily. I was able to keep it to once a week at most. This was only because I felt horrible after each non-ME-gan meal. If temptation had won, I would have gone back to a daily occurrence. Thank God for His protection, no matter how small it may seem at the time.
I was not a happy person. It seemed that life hit me all at once. I had ‘middle age’ going on and my hormones were (and still are, I’m sure) out of wack; I had gained weight; all the ailments I mentioned above were back and I was struggling with life, finances, and family. Mostly, my son who has served in two wars, both the Iraq & the Afghanistan wars, was home, but not himself. The boy who went to war, was lost, and came back broken – a mother’s nightmare. My life was falling apart. My bad luck, or ‘dark cloud’ if you will, had timed this food war just right, so it too lined up with all the other mountains I was facing.
I will leave you with this for now, and again, please do soak it all in. Things do not always seem the way they appear. This may or may not be going in the direction that you would think; but then again, maybe it is.
Things aren’t always as complicated as they may seem either!
Please do come back and tune in this week to hear more of my story about “The Fall From Eden.”
Pure, non-compromised ME-gan love to you and yours!
Mary Bortel
13 Saturday Apr 2013
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faith, Fresh fruits & vegetables, God, Happiness, healthy living, Juicing, Mary Sparacino Bortel, Mother Nature, Raw Foodism, The ME-gan Lifestyle
The ME-gan Lifestyle encompasses healthy living. What we feed our minds and bodies determines how we look and feel. When you see a sluggish person, do you think that they are getting the vitamins and nutrients they need? When you see an obese person, who can barely get around, with one complaint after another, is your first thought “wow, they must be eating awesomely healthy?” I doubt it.
I would suppose there is truth in those wise words “You are what you eat.” If you eat health, you’re going to reap health. Is that so hard to believe?
Everyday is a gift from God and we can take and enjoy it, or we can throw it away. The desire to be healthy & to live life to the fullest goes hand in hand with a positive attitude. It’s in hatefulness, angriness, jealousy, envy, sloth, glutony and all the many other derogatory states of being in which we allow ourselves to succumb to, that our minds and bodies start to develop illness and disease. We simply cannot shine, the way God intended us to, when we are anchored down with poor health; both mentally and physically. We are no good to ourselves, or to others.
There’s nothing more effective than self-analysis and putting your very own plan to achieve better health & happiness into play. It’s always nice to have a partner and/or friend (or several of each) to journey your new path with you. But if you have to go it alone, then do it. YOU are No. 1, numero uno…get it, got it, good!
Embrace the ME-gan Lifestyle today. Put down that processed food that is loaded with chemicals, gluten, additives and preservatives; high salt, high fat, uggg… must I go on!? And learn to live with out the dairy, egg, meat, chicken, pork, fish… life DOES go on without all this, trust me!
Perhaps you enjoy all these foods, and maybe you are as fit as a fiddle, then fine! I’m not pushing YOU or anyone else; but for those of you who are in a bad place, mentally, physically & spiritually, and you know who you are, then you may want to immediately consider embracing a lifestyle change TODAY!
Fresh juiced oranges with steel cut oats for breakfast, is that punishment? How about eating fresh beets or juicing them? Is that torture? I don’t think so!
The ME-gan lifestyle enjoys raw foods, juicing, fantastic & scrumptious ME-gan meals, as well as getting out and exercising! Mother Nature offers limitless options to you and your family and brings health and beauty to your dinner table.
You don’t have to join a gym, why? How about walking, bike riding, roller skating, jogging…these are all great ways to get fit. Just get active! Your body will thank you and you’ll be a different person; happier and healthier.
The ME-gan Lifestyle will be your partner in achieving your goal to a NEW and BETTER you!
Come back tomorrow for more of my story of “What’s going on with Mary and her ME-gan world?”
Mother Nature’s nourishing love to you all,
Mary
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10 Wednesday Apr 2013
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bad food temptations, being true to self, body cleansing, compromise, detoxing, Disease, diversion, faith, God, hind sight, Illness, listen to your body talk, losing control, LOVE, self dedication, temptations, The ME-gan Lifestyle, values
So, what IS going on in my ME-gan world? And, what IS so ‘shocking,’ as I put it in my previous posting?
Ahhh… where do I begin? (This is me taking a deep breath)…
If we could wind the clock back to one year from today, it would be about the time when some unexpected winds of change started blowing my way. These weren’t exactly the well needed, ‘good’ winds of change that I like to expect and prefer to speak of. Nonetheless, they blew, and quite hard I might add. I’ll save all the intricate details for my next book! Oh, and there’s one coming…take my word!
Yes.. the winds of change kept blowing, and by mid-fall, of last year, I began to question what it would be like to wander off the ME-gan (gluten free, vegan) path just ever so slightly. “What would happen?” I wondered. I took into consideration what I’d previously heard about body cleansing and some of the guidance going around suggesting that once a body has been cleansed, and illness has left or gone into remission, that a person could slowly re-introduce foods into their body. The theory being that the person would most likely discover that they would not have the same ‘bad’ effect to these foods as they experienced prior to the cleansing. Since I had been strictly ME-gan for basically 4 years, my curiosity was peaked. Just in time for the holidays. Oh Joy.
After, what I considered at the time to be ‘careful consideration,’ I decided to eat ‘no boundaries style’ once a month. It didn’t take terribly long for that once-a-month to become twice a month. But let me stop there, for a minute, before I jump too far ahead too soon.
My brother Matty likes to use this analogy, and I’ll quote:
Once you get off a straight path, even if just a ‘step,’ it is no longer a straight path.
How true is that? I mean, if that doesn’t just say it all, I don’t know what does. My straight path had been messed with. Corrupted. Little did I know this truth at the time.
Once the forbidden fruit, if you will, touched my lips and seeped through my system…like evil on a cold dark night, I began to slowly (actually, maybe quicker than I think) lose control. Of course, I can write about this now because hind sight is 20/20, but at the time I had no idea what uproar this diversion was causing inside of me; mind, body and soul.
But I can’t go spilling all the beans right now, can I? Certainly NOT. And I won’t. I want you to absorb what I’ve conveyed to you thus far, and ponder it. Perhaps try to guess where my story will lead and how far it may go. I think all my readers will be surprised and shocked to say the least; some may even be unbelieving, while others will not be surprised at all.
For those of you who have ready my book, The ME-gan Lifestyle, you know I like to use the term “listen to your body talk.” It’s true, your body does speak, and you MUST listen. Otherwise, you’ve declared war with your own being. That doesn’t make much sense now does it?
I hope you come back for my next posting to find out what happened next on my journey into the unknown. I’m juggling life right now, as we all are I’m sure, but I love my blog and I love comments and followers. It, and you, are like sunshine on a cloudy day – welcomed and much needed.
ME-gan love, peace, health and faith to you all,
Mary
08 Monday Apr 2013
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blogging, caring, faith, George Bush Quote "fool me once", God, heavenly family, information sharing, knowledge, learing, life's lessons, LOVE, passions, sharing knowledge, youtube
I just want to thank those of you who took the time to contact me with concern for me, my son and his family. At times when I most feel like I’m going to fall, my heavenly family speaks to me and fills me with light and hope. God hears our prayers, and feels our hurts. He knows our needs. I hand my burden over to Him; His will be done. The burden is lifted, my heart is filled with faith and hope, and I look forward to better days coming; in all aspects, for all of us.
Writing is what I truly love and enjoy. Blogging is an extension of this art, and I’m thankful to have this venue to do so. This blog was started in an effort to share my passion for better health, true happiness, healthy food, healthy cooking, and overall faith & love, with others. Others who are interested in hearing, learning, sharing, caring and who reap benefit from my words.
We all experience life and life’s lessons on different levels throughout our entire life. I don’t believe a day goes by where there isn’t something in there that we can walk away with…shaping us into wiser, more knowledgeable human beings. We live and learn. We’d all just keep making the same mistakes over and over if that were not true. Although, sometimes I make the same mistake one, twice, maybe even 3 times, I do eventually learn! 🙂 That’s all that really matters. Better late than never.
Like George W. Bush once said, and I quote:
There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.
Hahaha! We all know what he was ‘trying’ to say!! God bless ya George! But unfortunately we do get fooled once or twice – that’s life. But we learn eventually. So where am I going with this? As we learn, why not share it for those who want it and or need it? Those who do not want it can move past it. It’s that simple. I certainly appreciate the fact that when I want to know the most efficient way to cut a pineapple, all I have to do is search blogs and/or YouTube and behold, it’s there! But if people didn’t share their knowledge we’d not have this convenience.
Sharing knowledge is the best gift I have to offer, not to mention, I enjoy it. It gives me true pleasure. If I can make ONE person happier, healthier, whatever it may be, then what more could I ask? Today as I left work, a co-worker walked up to me as they were leaving and said “I just want you to know, you made my day! What you said to me, made me laugh and I really needed that!” And by that person taking the time to say that to me, in return made my day! We all need each other. The world would be a better place if we all just got along!
Be nice and share the love! Be happy, not sad, and be joyful, not angry.
So, although there are many mountains in my life, as I call them, walking away from my blog is probably the worst thing for me. This is my ‘painter’s palette,’ so to speak! My blog allows me to breathe; it keeps me going.
I have so much to share, and can’t wait to blog about what’s been going on in the ME-gan world. You will be SHOCKED (I think)! Stay tuned, it’s coming up next.
Please come back and check in. Leave a note when you can! Sharing and caring…let’s do it together!
ME-gan Love to you all!
Mary