GROUNDHOG DAY
My all-time favorite movie is Ground Hog Day. It’s a love story, though not in the traditional sense. The main character is self-absorbed, egotistical, inconsiderate, and selfish. His life is unfulfilled. He knows something is missing, but he does not know what it is, or where he can find it.
Somehow, he finds himself trapped in the same day, every day. Every morning he wakes up into the same reality. It seems time has stopped. He is doomed to live out February 2nd, Groundhog Day, over and over and over.
He does not know how to handle this absurd twist. He enters a period of denial, he lashes out in anger, he becomes depressed, he abuses alcohol, he chases women, he even attempts suicide. Nothing the outside world has to offer can free him from his cycle of pain. Every day he wakes up into the same dreary reality.
Finally, he extinguishes all hope. He surrenders to his misery completely and relinquishes his hope of escaping. It is through his utter surrender, that love finally pierces his heart. His surrender is what empowered him. Now, for the first time, he is able to accept this day. He accepts reality on its terms, not his. Finally. he stops struggling against what is.
He still wakes every morning to Groundhog Day but his perspective has shifted radically. No longer is he trapped in the prison of his own myopic lens. A new energy and lust for life moves through him. He decides to make the most of this day! For the first time he recognizes the gift he has been given; he sees the precious opportunity before him. He realizes that he has the gift of time, and he can use this time to better himself and the world around him.
He learns to play the piano, he sculpts ice, and reads poetry. He sings and dances, he plays with the world! He begins to place others first; he values service and becomes a source of inspiration to the townsfolk. He makes of himself a refuge for them. Slowly and steadily, he has been transformed from a self absorbed and miserable person to a strong, confident and happy man. His light is now shining brightly. He has discovered the inner freedom that has been available to him all along, simply awaiting his choice.
Only this internal shift could free him from his pain. His inner shift is so powerful that it transforms the external world he inhabits. His prison has become a garden, and there he can grow whatever he chooses. A beautiful woman, who he had previously and unsuccessfully tried to chase and possess, comes to see his light. She is captivated by it. She is drawn to him. She can feel the love that has grown in his heart; this is not the clinging and needy love of the ego, this love is not selfish. This is the boundless love of being, the love of life, love of truth, the love of this day! This is the love that comes only from total acceptance of oneself and ones circumstance. This love is the force behind all things. This is the love the mystics describe in their poetry. She cannot resist this loving energy, no woman can. She goes to him.
They have found love of being personified in one another. He has found the boundless love within him, and she becomes the channel through which it flows. He wakes up. It is a new day. He is freed from his prison.
Love has set him free.
Every morning, we wake into our own respective Groundhog Day. Is this day an opportunity or a curse? The answer to that question dictates the course of a life.
May we all find our freedom.
