Another Groundhog Day!

Weekly Word #2 ~ February, 2007

“What would you do if you were stuck in one place and everything was exactly the same and nothing that you did mattered?" Phil (Bill Murray) asks his inebriated companions at the bowling alley, in the great metaphysical movie, Groundhog Day. One of the local Punxsutawney fellows replies: “That about sums it up for me.”

Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever wondered if your life was stuck on “repeat,” and going around and around in the same place, day after year? It’s easy for this to happen to us, following the rules we learned during our childhood domestication—being nice, not making waves, holding on to the safe job-- and safe relationship, safe wardrobe, safe identity, and safe religion.

As Phil and his companions drive off from the bar, he realizes that if he has “no tomorrow,” he can do anything he wants. He can be in the moment and quit following all the rules. It is one of many profound teachings in a gentle comedy about a man stuck in a repeating day. Of course, he begins pushing the edge more than most of us might be comfortable with . . .but then, comfort is one of those “safe” things that many of us try to hold on to.

The turning point in Phil’s agony, trapped in his repeating Groundhog Day, comes when he is telling his producer, “Rita” (Andie McDowell) about his dilemma. She says something like, “It depends on how you look at it.” (As in the Toltec wisdom about "Dreaming").

Phil goes through several changes about his situation, beginning with being a victim of it, to becoming a master of his situation—and using it in an attempt to seduce Rita and others. Rita represents a very strong personal integrity in the film, and he cannot use his tricks to win her—he cannot achieve her level of integrity and realness without a purposeful inventory of his own mind.

When he realizes who she is, he finally begins to model his life in his repeating day after her, and lives his life in genuine service to others. We can watch his feelings about himself change as he responds to the needs of others in service and appreciation. He becomes a true master of his own personal world.

With Phil’s integrity now matching Rita’s, his heart is freed to truly love, and the spell is broken. His heart is open, she responds, and all is well.

Is your life repeating itself? Are you following rules that trap you in a repetitive cycle of days without a chance to be yourself and shine in your integrity? What if there was no tomorrow? (There isn’t, you know, there's only today). What will you do with your life today? What risks will you take, what will you give? How will you love?

What a great lesson for us all! Let’s wake up from our Groundhog Days, and LIVE!! Let's open our hearts and heal those fears and wounds that hold us back from our true nature as generous lovers of Life!

I hope that my teaching and Joydancer.com can offer guidance to that awakening.

Thanks for being here.

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