Theodore Roosevelt

One of my favorite things in the WORLD is a good quote. Come to my apartment in downtown Chicago and you will walk into an inspirational, but wonderfully pinterest-inspired lovely space. Right now I am currently burning a Diptyque Candle called "roses." Great start to the Monday.

Here is the quote I've been thinking about lately...

Also great book based on this quote is Brene Brown's "daring greatly."

Love

Megan

Life is wonderful

Hello! I know it's been forever since I've posted anything and that is because:

1: I have an incredible NEW JOB! (more on that later)

2: I have a new project, a volunteer job, that is everything I could have ever dreamed.

3: I moved into this amazing apartment downtown Chicago. It is my pinterest dream come true, I have been decorating, DIYing, and really making it my own, which is exactly where I want to be.

4: Dating, this is a whole blog in an of itself, which I most likely won't share, but that's another fun reason I've been MIA.

5: FRIENDS/FAMILY: I am blessed to have the best friends and family in the entire world, three of them are moms to little boys who are all little faux nephews of mine, Jax, Landon and Jameson. And all three are very close to being able to say my name. Jameson calls me "mena" and Jax can say "me-an" with a huge goofy smile on his face, so I spend a lot of free time with them. And little Landon just turned one! At 27, I think life just keeps getting better and better. My family is getting bigger and my friends are getting closer, nothing betta.

I decided to start blogging again because I am seeing that this page is getting a ton of page views and I have no content! Sorry about that!

In the meantime, please check out my new project on facebook : the Alive center, in naperville IL
 - There are a couple of Alive things on facebook, but ours in the pretty, colorful Logo.

Also,  follow me @alivenaperville on twitter!

I will post an entire post about ALIVE, as it deserves one, but for now, check out the social media! Alivenaperville.com has a little info about it:) If you know any teens/adults/anyone in the Naperville area, send them over! Our grand opening is in May!

You can also find me on pinterest "Megan Roy"

SO MUCH LOVE,

Megan

Back to writing :)

Hello!

 I took a little hiatus for a while and started writing with my friend Morgan on the other blog, but I am going to be posting on here a lot too! Did anyone check out the other blog? Thoughts?

Ok, so where have I been the last year? haha... I got busy to say the least! Not that I am not busy anymore, it's busy in a different way! I got out of a relationship about 6 months ago and have been doing some soul searching and working on some life changes since then!

Like after every almost two year relationship, I fell apart a bit. And I let myself and had a lot of compassion for myself. It took a good 3 or 4 months of letting myself be sad, wallow a bit, get support from friends and family, and really take a look at everything to be in the place I am today! And I am SO grateful for all the friends and family that were so supportive and loving! It's a lot to lose your best friend and a ton of people you are used to talking to daily. In my family we are friendly people. And I thought after a breakup, it's okay to still talk to the people you were surrounded by for almost two years. Apparently, this is not the norm. I really like people and the connections I make are never less than 100% real, so it was startling to me to say the least when I was told I couldn't talk to or be friends with any one. We are just not meant for each other and I think it was friendly,  and we just parted ways, so all is good everyone! :)

If each man or woman could understand that every other human life is as full of sorrows, or joys, of heartaches and of remorse as his own… how much kinder, how much gentler he would be.”

—	William Allen White

What I have learned from entire ordeal is that. I am happy with myself. I am glad I handled every situation like I did. I was always genuine, true to myself, my feelings, and my morals. I handled everything well. The only thing that I ever worried about is what everyone thought. Who was saying what, and was anyone talking about me in a bad way and were feelings hurt. I had one person completely blind side me, frankly when you think you are talking to a friend, talking about life, you never think they will betray you or tell people you were looking for information, when you were just hurting and talking to someone you thought you could trust. It's a two way street, and if the friendship is both ways, betrayal sucks. Breakups are never fun for either party, so my only wish is that everyone knew how good the relationship was for both of us and how we helped in each other with a lot. Hopefully at one point this will all blow over and everyone will realize what it really was. Good.

I also found out (which I always knew) I am insanely honest. Maybe too much so. I need to guard my heart a little bit more and not give it away easily. If you ask me how I am, I will tell you how happy I am as well as what I am struggling with if you ask. In the same since, I will tell my friends what's been going on. My family is really open and in everyone's business. Not all families are like that and don't know what their family members are struggling with, which was always eye opening and different to me. If my cousin or friend or whoever is struggling with something, I am on the phone with them, listening. Again, a lot of people don't have the patience for this. It's just what we do and I wouldn't have it any other way. :) For me, it's never healthy to keep everything to yourself. It's healthy to talk about things with other people and let them in! What life is about, connecting! Agree? Disagree?

My parents taught me to never give up on someone you love. To work through the hard stuff and to stick with relationships that are worth it to you. That is instilled in my soul, and the right person will really appreciate this!

I have since moved on, and I am feeling wonderfully happy and healthy! Meeting new people has opened up a lot of new opportunities! I think Lauren Conrad said it best when she said she sees every breakup as an opportunity, not a bad thing!

I turned 26 last week and have never had a such a huge out pouring of love in my entire life. Birthdays are always such a fun day, but this year just seemed special. I had the most beautiful texts from friends about when they were 26, the most heartfelt cards about how people valued my friendship. One friend told me "I was the most optimistic person she knew." Things like that really affirm me that I am doing the right things, living how I want to live. and effecting people in a positive way. I have the most incredible people around me.

My entire family decorated my entire kitchen and house with signs and toilet paper streamers to make my day. It was just really cool. I feel like I have been through enough where I know myself now more than ever and am happy to have only the people I'm surrounded with to be positive people who really all enhance my life in certain ways! To be 26, have those people, and continue push yourself to meet more people and do new things is how I always want to be.

I love people. All people. This is the main thing I have learned. I really like getting to know people, their stories, their hurts, scars, their biggest joys, what makes people happy. I really like kids too. I am fortunate enough that a lot of my friends are pregnant or have recently had babies, so that has been SUCH a blast hanging out with them. A lot of friendships have changed and molded, but have gotten deeper as well.

Well, that was really long winded, but wanted to fill everyone in on my life! All 1 of you that read this!

I will probably post some quotes that have been on my heart lately, and some fun things me and my friends did this summer!

The most recent adventure was paddle boarding! If you haven't tried it, DO IT! It's one of the most relaxing things to do on the water. We did it at sunset on a Friday night with beers. I could get used to that!  To be on the water on a big surfboard basically, paddling into the sunset, it was beautiful! I wish I could have taken pictures!

Happy Tuesday! Have an awesome week!

xoxo

Megan

New blog!

Hello! I will continue to post up here since it's been a long time since I have, but I just wanted to let everyone know my friend Morgan and I started another blog called,

Positively M&M

http://positivelymegandmorg.blogspot.com/

Please check it out and leave some comments! We would love to hear your feedback!

Thanks sooo much! Hope everyone is well and enjoying this hot Chicago summer as much as I am

Peace&love

Megan

march madness

As basketball season is coming to an end, the weather is getting nicer and nicer every day, and with St. Patty's Day coming up this weekend, I am taking time to slow down and reflect tonight. 

Here's a quote I came up with today, that a couple of my friends liked...

" Life is simple. We are the ones that make it too hard. Love people. Live with intention. Work hard and play even harder. Don't be selfish, you hurt other people when you don't think how they feel. Be empathetic, out yourself in their shoes. Work on bettering yourself to make the world a better place, then tell others about it. Oh, and never take your family or friends for granted, they are the ones who you go to when you forget all the other stuff." 

Peace and Loveeeeee

Megan 

New year, new outlook?

 It has been a while since I have blogged, for good reason! I am now writing for Diabeteshealth.com (an online diabetes magazine) which also is in print! It has been really exciting and it's fun to get little blogs published! So check out and comment on my blog @ diabeteshealth.com (There is a new one up today 1/27!) Thanks for the support!

 So, what does the new year mean for me? Well it obviously means dusting off the 3 (yes 3!) goal/vision boards to see how my goals have changed and collage some new magazine articles and pictures into what I think this year should entail. And also some more goals for this year.
( Yes, this is probably from watching years of Oprah with my mom, but hey, it really does work!)

If I write something down (or collage it in pretty picture form, I am 10 times more likely to actually accomplish it, or at least think about accomplishing it)

These are always loose goals because I always think as Beyonce says, "never become lazy or comfortable, nothing every comes from being comfortable" (or something like that, it's on the board). I never will hold myself to the goals because some are far out and unattainable this year. But, they are on there as motivation.

It seems redundant to do this a month into the year, but here are some of my "loose" goals!

- Great vacation (in the works already!!!!! Freaking out!)
- run a half marathon and blog about it in diabeteshealth.com (in the works already too) Chicago half!
- Kick ass with my job (again, in the works! I have been all over the place traveling!)
- Write more (yep, that's what I am doing now)
- stay motivated (hence the boards)
- Health (diabetes, I'm coming for you) this may mean attaching my sensor for more than 2 days @ a time, ughhhhh
- Save money (new condo? Apartment? in the next year?)
- Cook more. I love it and don't do it enough. I eat out a lot because of all the travel, but it's a pain to get all the ingredients on the weekend because I sometimes go out then too, which leaves me with rotten veggies on Monday. See previous goal. fail.
- contribute most alloted to 401k! Done!


Your welcome America. (kidding the 3 people that read this who are my mom, dad, and boyfriend)
Thanks guys.

Updates to come soon!

Go read diabeteshealth.com today! AND COMMENT!

peace and hugs,

Meg/

Random thoughts/quotes

I read a couple daily meditations/ bible verses/ spiritual teachings when I can. Why I do this could be another 50 posts, but let's stick to the point tonight. The book I currently love is written by Mark Nepo. His teaching for yesterday was pretty profound, so I thought I would share :

He is talking about staying committed to "your inner path," which, I think, is something that can easily get lost in the chaos that is life in this day and age! Mark goes on to say that...

"This means not separating from yourself when things get tough or confusing. This means accepting and embracing your faults and limitations. It means loving yourself no matter how others see you. It means cherishing the unchangeable radiance that lives within you, no matter the cuts and bruises along the way. It means binding your life with the solemn pledge to the truth of your soul." 

And he continues to say that caring for your soul is " interweaving the life of our spirit with the life of our psychologly; the life of our heart with the life of our mind; the life of our faith and truth with the life of our doubt and anxiety. Our humanness with our spirit"

Just what I needed to read today. Calm within the storm is sometimes closer than your realize.