Today’s Recovery Thought
Is it possible that we miss the point of Bill Murray’s journey in the movie Groundhog Day?
Most people think that Murray’s character was trapped constantly reliving groundhog day until he learned to overcome his narcissism and care about other people (or at least one other person) as much as he cared about himself.
What if Bill Murray didn’t escape Groundhog Day as much as embrace it’s lessons?
What if the point of the movie is that life is Groundhog Day (and that Bill Murray’s Phil came into right-relationship with the world once he embraced its lessons)?
I am certainly not talking about ignoring the terrible things that can happen to us in life, I am talking about looking at how life’s repetitions can act as a cheat-code instead of as a curse.
And, I am not being literal.
Obviously, in the movie, Phil finally wakes up on the day after Groundhog Day, but I suspect that his continued progress would be conditioned upon his ability to continue to live each day as if it were still Groundhog Day.
Recovery is often about muscle-memory and about having the right perspective.
So often we forget that while the struggles that we face often seem the same, and the days run together, and nothing ever seems to be easy we can all ‘wake up’ and use each new opportunity to encounter similar phenomena to improve ourselves.
We can choose to appreciate life’s repetitive structures as we would a nautilus (beautiful natural design) or to bemoan them as a never-ending circular staircase.
One of the reasons that I believe that I have continued in my recovery and sobriety is because I can embrace life’s patterns positively (see the beauty) and because I have an appreciation for how embracing the structure and repetitive nature of my program of recovery help me constantly improve as a human being.
I hope you have a great day!
Josh is an author, blogger and freelance writer with over 7-years of sobriety. Please consider following him on Twitter, throwing a tip into his hat on Patreon, or adding his blog OnPirateSatellite to your feeds.
