There is a great movie called Groundhog Day with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. The storyline has Bill Murray as a rather unpleasant reporter caught up in a bubble of time where he has to live the same day over and over again. He can’t get time to move forward again until he lives a day full of taking the right, compassionate and loving actions. Ever so slowly he learns to listen to people, to be kind and helpful and, finally to value them. He also learns that change is possible as is love. I love the plot idea behind the movie. It’s a story about karma, love, perseverance and that even the most stuck person can change.
One of the ideas within Spiritualism is that of ‘compensation and retribution for all the good and evil deeds done’. Groundhog Day reminds me of that idea. When someone takes action there will always be consequences flowing from that action. The consequences affect the person who took the action as well as the people who were involved in whatever action happened. Sometimes those consequences appear to have passed by the person who took the action. Yet the Universal law is always clear – there is cause and effect from any energy we give out whether by thought, word or deed. In a way this means that we will all face living a Groundhog Day. We will end up repeating the same energy or action again and again until we work out a better way to do things. I believe that is why we keep coming back to yet another life. We are like Bill Murray. Replaying variations of the same scenario until we find the loving way to act towards ourselves and others.
What does that mean for this current life? Firstly, that even if it appears that someone is getting away with their unloving, uncaring actions they really aren’t. Human justice is a man-made thing. Karma has a much wider scope. The energy you have created will find you and deliver back to you all that you sent out. That thought is enough for me to think carefully before I get angry, upset or fearful and act on those feelings. Secondly, that before I do anything I ask myself if it is being done out of love (whatever the current understanding of unconditional love that I have). If I act out of as much love for myself and others as possible then even if there are unexpected consequences they are likely to be more positive than not. Finally, every night I ask myself if I would want to live this day over again. Some days are definitely not. Some days are absolutely yes. I hope that if I check into each day I will find more yeses than nots.
I’m eternally grateful that I can say that for the last ten years I have not woken up stuck in a time bubble going through the same day over and over again. Before then I’m not so sure. There were times when the days easily blurred into the same old same old. I suspect I lived a lot of groundhog days before I notice that my life was not as fulfilling as I expected it to be. When I eventually went off in search of the missing bit I found my intuitive abilities and a search for spirituality. How fortunate I was. You are in charge of your own energy and actions. Don’t let yourself get stuck on Groundhog Day either!
Day 209 of my blogging challenge.