SELF

Letter: To All Presidential Candidates

| Megan

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Dear Presidential Candidates,

Really?!?

Seriously?!!?

Are you kidding?!!!?

Are you a part of reality? Are you Americans? Are you The People? If you are part of us, then why are you so deluded, delusional, egotistical, bombastic, self-aggrandizing, so God-awfully fruit cake, just. plain. NUTS? This is the best that your disparate parties have to offer?

Each and every one of you believe that you are not only capable of being the “leader of the free world”, but qualified to act as Commander-in-Chief and the figurehead of foreign relations for the United States? This letter is not directed at ANY of you individually, but rather an open letter to ALL of you collectively.

I’ll be frank, as a member of the voting public I am appalled at your political peacocking. As someone who considers themselves a conscientious and informed part of the electorate, I am stunned, dismayed, aghast at the reality television lens I believe you have brought into Presidential elections. Indeed, you have left me breathless with your performances.

I mean breathless in the context of being gut punched– repeatedly.

Have any of you spent any amount of time looking in a mirror recently? Or any time watching any of your debates or public forums? I’m not talking about staring in the mirror while memorizing prepared speeches, or practicing pretend smiles. I mean have any of you spent time with a board certified therapist recently?

How has our pool of Presidential candidates come to this?

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Listen, I understand that this RACE this push to put yourself in power is CRAZY. So crazy, in fact, that no rational human being with even a lick of sense will participate in that which we call the race to the Presidential Election.

It really does take super-human strength to flip-flop according to your audience, to criticize and corrosively condemn every other candidate constantly, to talk and talk and talk and pander for an entire DAY-after-day and then wake up and do it all again.

Does it injure your integrity or your sense of soul to climb in bed with corporate sponsors and business affiliates who have little to no care for the wishes or future of this country? Does it hurt to support special interest so aggressively that you forgot that there are not just hundreds, not thousands, but MILLIONS of Americans who are forgotten, underserved, or even negatively impacted by your glad handing big business like they are individual constituents? Yes, those are questions.

How does it feel to have let the BIGGEST, BARREL MOUTHED, BILLIONAIRE Bull into the China Shop since that Mavericky Pit Bull who wore lipstick eight years ago, let alone the fact that she is now his personal spokesperson? Does it pain your good sense to hear that racist, sexist, alarmist, narcissistic, even mildly murderous (according to some latest remarks in Iowa) candidate call you out on stage?

I guess after reviewing this letter I don’t have many comments, only questions. Questions that root in my very pride to be American.

One of the most simple, straightforward articles I’ve read so far comes from NPR called Meet The Candidates In 100 Words And 60 Seconds.

In that vein, I’ve complied my own very simple, very straightforward list of all of the candidates that I’ve affectionately titled Meet The Candidates In Under 5 Words. With a total read-time of 17 seconds, it’s worth it.

BERNIE– TOO OLD, TOO SOCIALIST

TRUMP– BOMBASTIC VITRIOLIST, and frankly NUCKING FUTS

HILLARY– BOUGHT IN, and BOUGHT OUT

CRUZ– BEHOLDEN TO CHRISTIAN GUN-TOTING ZELOTS

O’MALLEY– MOB BOSS

CHRISTIE– WAFFLING RED TO BLUE

BUSH– THREE IS MORE THAN TWO, NOT BETTER

PAUL– LIBERTARIANISM KILLS

RUBIO– IMMIGRATION POLICIES AGAINST THE GRAIN

FIORINA– FEMALE IN THE RED FRAY

CARSON– ZERO EXPERIENCE, ZERO FOREIGN POLICY ACUMEN

HUCKABEE– MAKING TEA WITH THE BEST

 

In the words of one of my dearest friends, Michelle. A woman whose intelligence and political acumen are unsurpassed, a woman whose letter was infinitely more concise and clear than mine, “Dear Candidates, you all suck!”

Sincerely,

Megan

Letters: To Marilyn Sandpearl

| Megan

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Dear Mrs. Sandpearl, (to my fifth grade self Ms. Finder),

You are the Miss Honey to my Matilda, the Annie Sullivan to my Hellen Keller, the Caroline Duggan to my Keltic Dreams Bronx-school-kid dancing fifth grade self. I don’t pretend to be the exceptional powerhouses some of these students were, but I was a little girl growing up in a small town with big hopes and dreams.

That self, that ten-year-old girl, that geeky stretch pant wearing, terrible perm-frizzed hair and buck teeth sporting girl still exists. She is me. I am her. We are all our small selves. Grown and learning– we hope– but somehow still the same. Your impact is carried in me, with me to this very day.

I am not alone in this, Mrs. Sandpearl. You have touched hundreds, probably THOUSANDS of kids with your love of learning, your vigor and lust for life, with your energy and care for your students. With your commitment to perfect cursive handwriting, and mad tap-dance skills atop desks from West to East, you awakened an entire generation to the joy of learning.

You taught us to thirst after knowledge and to look for learning opportunities in every aspect of our lives–inside and outside the classroom. You read to us from wonderful books and required us to apply our learning through projects and papers that cemented this link between learning and living for all of our lives.

Your attitude toward mastery, education, and learning was and is contagious. I would guess that your positive teaching mantras not only uplift and enlighten your students, but your fellow faculty members and the other staff at the schools you’ve worked with, as well.

I have come to believe that I, WE, you– the whole world really– ARE ONLY AS GOOD AS OUR TEACHERS. We are only as STRONG, INTELLIGENT, ENLIGHTENED, and INSPIRED as the ones whose job it is to pass that torch on every day in classrooms around the world.

I had an interesting exchange with a nurse-friend of mine, recently. This friend is STRONG, she is TOUGH. She is a marathoner, a kidney cancer survivor, a mom of three boys (like you), a compassionate and caring caregiver to those who she has ministered to in her chosen career of nursing.

I’ve always known that I didn’t have the STONES for the medical profession. I didn’t have it for the blood, the other bodily fluids, the stress of caring for someone’s needs in the most critical times of their life, the LONG hours and the low(er) pay (at least for many nurses I find this to be the case).

I was telling my friend how much I admired the work that she did, day in and day out. Taking the utmost care of the human race must be hard. I told her that I could never be a nurse. I didn’t have the courage, or the presence of mind, or the physical will.

I told her that someday, if life allowed, I wanted to be a teacher. She said to me, “I could never be a teacher. That is the hardest, most important job that anyone can have.” I was shocked. To put it lightly.

I was surprised because this woman in a profession that I know I could never sustain, never succeed in, a profession I admire and respect very much, was telling me that TEACHERS had all of her admiration and respect. TEACHING was a job she knew that she didn’t have the moxie for, and she honored everyone who chose that career.

I’m not a teacher, yet. So I can’t speak to the long hours, low pay, and skewed curriculum that teachers face day in and day out. But I can speak to YOU, Mrs. Sandpearl. I can say that I’ve watched you– up close as your student, and from far away as you’ve continued in teaching– and I know that YOU MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE.

You don’t simply have the opportunity to change and shape lives every day as every teacher does who steps into a classroom five or six days a week. YOU DO change and shape lives every day (let alone the lives of your incredible sons). You shaped those lives in a rural cow town in the middle-of-nowhere Utah then, and you shape those lives in a metropolitan contiguity of Boston now.

I honor you. I honor what you do. I pray that you won’t ever stop doing it. I pray that others will follow after you. I hope that Teachers will continue to recognize and embrace the power and opportunity they are given every. single. day.

Thank you.

Love, Megan

Looking Forward, Glancing Back

| Megan

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2015! What a year! 2016. What an opportunity.

It always takes me time to sink in to a New Year before I am ready to look either forward or back. Before I am ready to sum up what the past year meant to me or taught me, and what I have my sights set on in this new 365 days.

I’ve never felt this practice set me back or behind. Last year my resolution was simply based in one word– LOVE. I felt as though I needed to love more and better.

I am still unpacking and evaluating my progress. This pursuit for understanding and acting in true LOVE will almost certainly take a lifetime, so I’m not going to prognosticate or pontificate on the subject now– give me 30 to 50 more years and we’ll talk!

I can say that I was so lightened, enlightened, uplifted, and LOVED by my little family this year. I felt as though I came to better understand what it meant to love my children and my husband, and I felt that my understanding allowed me to realize that for as much LOVE as we send into the world, we often receive a return on that love that fills us ten fold.

One of the other goals I hit hard in 2015 was Refined + Rugged. I didn’t begin my blog until February (in keeping with surveying my field of life and looking at what I wanted and needed). I am so pleased with this little space of the internet. I can’t believe how far it has come!

I remember the beginning when every step seemed agonizing due to my low level of Information Technology knowledge. I still have a LONG way to go in terms of making this site more interactive, user friendly, and adding in some of those fancy widgets I’ve always dreamed of using (like a little bottom bar of my shopping picks, etc.).

But I am not sitting idle. I am working out kinks here and there every day. I am producing better and better content, working on my photography skills (that might take a class!!!), and hopefully continuing to refine my writing and my voice here on this page I call my own.

Though the page is mine, it would be little more than a grainy closet log, boring travel diary, personal recipe reminder, and staid workout recorder without my husband. My husband takes nearly all of the style photos for Refined + Rugged, and he continually inspires and supports me in this endeavor.

This page also wouldn’t be anything without YOU! Thank you for the support, care, enthusiasm, interest, conversation, positive comments, and encouragement. It means the WORLD! I am so grateful for YOU my friends and readers for your engagement and involvement.

In this past week-and-a-half as the New Year has begun I have written down a couple of personal goals:

Yes to LOVE, Yes to Speaking Kindly

No to SHOPPING until March

Yes to Gratitude, and Yes to Letter Writing

No to Eating Out

Yes to continuing in Family Dinner, and Yes to Moderation in Treats

Yes to Working Out and Biking and Being Active Daily

Yes to tackling an understanding of Budgeting and Personal Finance

Yes to Writing and Creating and Blogging with purpose

There you have it. In as streamlined a way as I can state it for now. The great thing about resolutions and goals is that there is no reason you cannot morph and change them as you see fit, as you journey further in to your new year.

Do you all make goals and resolutions each year? If so, why? If not, why not? If so, how have you seen progress, success, or improvement in yourself in the areas you’ve resolved to improve?

I hope you go roaring into Monday like you mean it! Whether you have personal goals to tackle or not, I hop you feel loved, enlightened, and uplifted! Let’s do this!!!

XX, Megan

Three Tens: A Christmas Spin

| Megan

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I couldn’t resist sharing my Christmas Cycling Workout with all of you beautiful people. Plus, I’ve had several readers and friends let me know that they’ve repeatedly used some of my other Spin Workouts in a pinch.

Including one friend who pulled up Refined + Rugged on her iPhone and used my Thanksgiving ride as a workout for herself and a  group of friends one fine winter gym day! I couldn’t be more pleased.

Ride on!

This workout is broken into 3 BIG, HEAVY 10 minute hill climbs. The purpose here is definitely not speed. I’ve been reading a lot about indoor training for the outdoor season and it is simply a fact that you don’t need to KILL yourself all through the off-season to see results when the weather clears and you’re back outside.

In fact, putting in some long, low, and slow base miles can really insure that you will be ready for action when race season arrives, and keep you in stellar shape through the winter.

Ride on!

For this ride you will begin with very little resistance. You should add gear after your warm-up, and again before you do the 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off stands.

Then all you need to do is pick one, big, fat, hard gear (resistance level 8 or even 9 if we are referencing resistance levels 1-10. 1 being the least resistance, and 10 being the greatest.)

Once you hit that first hill, HOLD your heavy resistance through the 10 minutes. Plus at minute 4  you will stand for 1 minute, then saddle down for a seated PUSH for 1 minute, stand again for 1 minute, and then finish off the last 3 minutes of your slog, I mean climb.

3 Big 10s Profile

Warm-up 3 minute upper body stretch/spin out your legs

3 minutes of 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off pick-ups

3 minutes of 30 second stand, 30 seconds seated.

10 minute Heavy Resistance climb.

  • Stand at 4 minutes for 1 minute, then seated PUSH (like sprint but I can’t say sprint on a resistance that heavy!!!) for 1 minute, then stand for 1 more minute. Finish off your climb for the final 3 minutes.

Flush for 2 minutes.

10 minute Heavy Resistance climb.

  • Stand at 4 minutes for 1 minute, then seated PUSH (like sprint but I can’t say sprint on a resistance that heavy!!!) for 1 minute, then stand for 1 more minute. Finish off your climb for the final 3 minutes.

Flush for 2 minutes.

10 minute Heavy Resistance climb.

  • Stand after 4 minutes for 1 minute, then seated PUSH (like sprint but I can’t say sprint on a resistance that heavy!!!) for 1 minute, then stand for 1 more minute. Finish off your climb for the final 3 minutes.

Cool down! Way to RIDE!

XX, Megan

(Playlist begins with your warm-up song “Christmas is All Around”, by Billy Mack. Your first big hill begins with “Christmas Eve / Sarajevo 24/24”, by Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

*As a musical connoisseur, and someone who believes that music is both an ART and a WORK, I purchase ALL of the music that I listen to and play. I strongly urge you to do the same. I post these playlists so that you can get an idea of the music that rolls along with a great workout, but you can download that music for yourself and give the artist a hand up by purchasing their music!