Groundhog Day
Repeating Cycles
There have been times where I feel like I’m living the plot line from the movie Groundhog Day. For those who need a refresher (OR for those of you who have never seen it), the main character, Phil (played by comedian Bill Murray), keeps repeating the same day over and over again which happens to be Groundhog Day. His only focus becomes gaining the love of the beautiful Rita, to trick her into wanting to be with him, but each day he awakens to begin the same day — Groundhog Day. He’s stuck in this never-ending cycle of endless Groundhog Days, his plans never working out. Phil becomes obsessed with figuring out a way to get Rita. And to do that, he must break the cycle.
Why is this happening to him? What is going on???
Each day Phil gets up determined to try a new scheme to win Rita’s affection. Surely when he gets what he wants, he’ll finally move past Groundhog Day! He tries first one thing and then another, all to no avail. He goes to bed only to awaken once again to repeat the same cycle.
Until he gives up and learns how to love.
As the audience, we watch the transformation — the metamorphosis from selfish-guy-who-wants-what-he-wants to someone who spends his day in the presence of someone he loves. He just loves. He shifts from trying to get, to someone who gives. And he’s happier. He’s more content. And only then the cycle breaks.
As a young person watching that movie it was slow and painful. But as an older, wiser woman I find myself having an aha moment, especially in the midst of a groundhog-day experience myself, feeling like I’m repeating a familiar plot line, desperate to break the cycle.
I try first this, then I try that. Maybe this new something will change things for me. Maybe if I work harder. No, this time I’m asking myself What do I need to love here? Myself? Another? Maybe the situation so I no longer resist it? For surely love is in this place and not just around the corner in a shiny new place. Evidently I’m taking another lap for a reason.
It’s not about loving something painful really. It is about becoming more Love. And when we ask a different question, we get a different answer. We invite a different perspective….and one that maybe breaks the cycle of our groundhog day. But I have a suspicion that, just like Bill Murray’s character discovered, when we become more love and more love flows through us, we don’t mind our situation as much somehow.
And so here is the place that is transformed.
Love is the things we have come to learn. And like a kiss that awakens the princess from a deep sleep, love is the thing that breaks the spell and breaks the cycle of what we keep repeating. Love transforms.
Or that’s what I believe. What about you?