On Sunday, the girls and I sat down to watch Mufasa, one of the latest Disney movies about, well, if you are a 90s kid (or beyond) like me, the name is enough description.

Mufasa, father of Simba, from The Lion King, of course.

I recently realized that, in addition to FernGully, my favorite movie growing up was The Lion King. There are few times I have listened to "Circle of Life" without it sending chills down my spine. I loved nature even before I realized it. I cried my way through The Lion King at the Hollywood Bowl when it appeared on our Disney channel recently, not really sure why.

There is something about that movie that I am so deeply emotionally connected to.

And yet, when I hit "Play" on Mufasa, I wasn't expecting anything that deep. It was simply a movie to watch with the girls on a rainy day. My mum told me she had watched it on the plane, but didn't seem overly impressed with it. It was Disney, but I hadn't heard much about it.

You know where this is going, right?

It bowled me over. I absolutely LOVED it, found it so powerful, emotional, and needed.

Well, I'll add there was a minor layer of irritation while watching it with my girls, one I could understand. Since they look like live lions (as opposed to animated), it was hard for them to tell the difference between the characters, and hard to keep the stories straight when there were three generations of lions in the movie, jumping back and forth in timelines.

If you have watched a movie with young children before, you know they ask literally a million questions....usually about the exact thing they are currently explaining on screen.

It's hard to concentrate sometimes!

For me though, I was emotional the whole way through, and I made sure to pause it multiple times to use it to explain concepts to the girls that Mufasa made so beautifully clear.

The best example of this was Scar.

(If you are Gen Z, you may need to go look up The Lion King to understand this email.)

In the movie, as the name suggests, you learn about Mufasa's life up to the moment he became King. I will try not to give away any spoilers, but the part that I thought was so well done was the story of Scar, or his birth name, Taka.

It showed Taka saving Mufasa from drowning (and he saved his life another time too). It showed kindness, empathy, love, and generosity towards his brother. It showed the vulnerability of Taka, and his ability to see the best in his brother.

To me, I loved that it showed something I believe in with all my heart. We are all born good; we all have goodness in our hearts; we can all make good choices, if we are shown love and companionship.

It even showed his empathy and heart in a moment after he had begun to make bad choices, how he made a good choice to save his brother's life (again!) and his decison to accept responsibility for what he had done after all was safe again.

Of course, any of us would end up bitter, angry, and desperate, if we lived isolated and hated, with a broken heart.

There is so much anger and nastiness in the world, and so much of it comes from pain. I have said over and over that I don't believe in bad people; we make bad choices, sure, but that doesn't mean the next choice can't be a good one. It doesn't right the wrongs we have done in the past, but we can begin to make one good choice, and the next, and the next, because we want to do better.

It also doesn't mean we should shame people or isolate them from human connection; that only leads to further disconnection and pain that then continues their spiral downwards. Understandably so, any of us would do that.

This movie did the best job I have ever seen of showing why people end up making the choices they make. Yes, this was lions and it was a fictional movie, but there is a lot to be learned from it.

It made me think a lot about the podcast episode I recorded last year with Rahsaan from the 26.2 to Life movie. If you missed that one, go back and take a listen. And then go watch Mufasa.

This week on the Running For Real podcast...

Here's the official description:

For many writers, the logical followup to a successful book is a sequel. For Alex Hutchinson, it was his reluctance to go down that path that led to his new book, The Explorer’s Gene: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map. In it, he examines the ways in which humans’ need to explore is expressed in all areas of our lives.

Here's the real deal:

After a decade of friendship that began with a deep dive, Alex and I always have a great conversation, going down rabbit holes of fascinating I have often wondered about alone, but not discussed out loud. His book has changed me in many ways over the past few months; I explore more in ways that feel uncomfortable, but also good. I have found a lot of new music I enjoy that I would never have tolerated exploring before. I have been honing in on my directional skills without my phone. This episode is well worth a listen; you will be glad you did.

I have been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to help the running industry continue to move towards prioritizing sustainability, and have been writing for various publications.

I shared on Race Directors HQ about tips for small races to begin (or move along) their sustainability journey.

I wrote for Running Insight Magazine about ways running retail stores (your local run stores) can do their part.​

With both of the above, send along to your local stores and races.

And I'll be sharing more next week (with a HUGE opportunity for you!!), but if you want a sneak peak, this is what we have been working hard on behind the scenes.​

Be in Boston next weekend?

This was last year:

Two plogging events you can attend:

Saturday, April 19th at 10 a.m. Come join Kofuzi, Ms. Space Cadet, Drew Whitcomb and me for a plog from Back Bay down to the 26.TRUE course to cheer on runners.

And on Sunday, April 20th at 1:30 p.m., I will be going on a plog with Endorphins Running from their popup store.

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I enjoyed being on Lindsey Hein's I'll Have Another podcast last week for her podcaster series. I haven't been on there since 2017, so it was fun to reflect back on the journey since then. I saw she had Ali (Feller, On the Run) this week, and look forward to tuning in to that one too!

My co-author, Zoë Rom, wrote about the benefits of National Parks and how much they contribute to our economy. It's well worth a read.​

“There is no such thing as bad people. We’re all just people who sometimes do bad things.”

― Colleen Hoover, It Ends with Us

Thanks to our partner, HydraPak

I have now run half marathons or further with both of HydraPak's amazing handheld bottles, and while both worked very well (I'll be honest, I wasn't sure about the Tempo Pro going into it, but I was wrong!), I am a SkyFlask gal, and have decided for me, that is my absolute favorite way to hydrate. I shared the video a few weeks ago about how I filled up my HydraPak Skyflask in 4.5 seconds (watch this video) with the flip-top lid being so easy, and I did that while averaging 6:36 pace. There are very few situations where 4.5 seconds costs you a goal.

I already used my hydration products for trail, and now that the SkyFlask and I are officially BFFs, I am excited to use it in my marathons this year (yep, planning on doing two this fall; I think you can guess which two ;) )

Is it time you give handhelds a try?

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Be kind to one another, yourself, and this beautiful planet of ours.

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