Reflections in Personal Growth

Facebook today reminded me of a post (Full post at the bottom) from 2014, nine years ago to the date. In the post, I had referenced the death of a friend, and as well as how poignant the song "The Circle of Life" from The Lion King, a movie I had been watching with my 8-year old at the time, had felt. There were a bunch of comments from friends and family, most of those who didn't know the friend in question. I have been getting these throwback reminders from Facebook of late, perhaps reminding me of a time when I was somewhat active on Facebook. Purely from that standpoint, reading the post did not evoke a whole lot of excitement. However, something about that did touch a chord, and that's why I am writing about it.  I have had difficulty reading long form writing for a while now. I, who would gobble up books at an enviable pace, have been struggling to pick up a book to read, and to finish it if I did get around to picking up one to read. I have been attributing it

So I decided to take off from work the week of Thanksgiving. Thursday and Friday were holidays anyway, so taking the first three days off means I had nine days off. With the latest addition to our family Maya, the golden retriever puppy who is now 11 weeks old and not allowed to fully mingle, we were not looking at going anywhere. We are staying home, sending children to school, and enjoying our time off work.  I started off saying this is a period where I do nothing. No scheduled activities, will do what I feel like, and nothing that I don't feel like. Slowly the activity list started building up. Want to get back into routine on some things I have been a bit sloppy about - walking, strength training, protein intake, water consumption, sleep discipline etc. Read books. Watch movies, TV shows. Go to the movie hall and watch a movie without any research or expectation. Eat good food. Cook good food. Use the sunlight, go for trail walks.  So, trail walks. Something I have grown to en