Inspiration

Yesterday, Feb 2, was Groundhog Day, and I was delighted to hear that Punxsutawney Phil, that legendary rodent weather forecaster, did NOT see his shadow, meaning that spring will come early this year. After the long and intense winters of the past two years, that is good news indeed!

But the biggest joy of Groundhog Day was watching the movie of the same name, which has become an annual tradition for Helen and me every Feb 2. Groundhog Day is a brilliant, funny, imaginative, poignant and spiritually-meaningful film, full of rich insights about how we live and learn and evolve into better human beings. For those unfamiliar with the story, it centers on an egotistical and cynical TV weatherman (also named Phil, and played by Bill Murray), who goes to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to cover the Groundhog Day event, but then gets trapped in a personal time warp where Feb 2 keeps repeating itself, many thousands of times over many years. For a long time, his reaction is resistance, anger, reckless abandon, manipulation, despair, even suicide, to try to change his situation. But no matter what he does, every morning he wakes up and it’s still Groundhog Day, over and over again. He’s stuck, until he realizes that he can change himself, through self-awareness, love, serving others, and being happy in this now-moment.

For anyone on a path of personal growth – really all of us, whether consciously or not – this movie is very relevant, no matter if one’s orientation is spiritual, religious or psychological. Buddhists talk about samsara, a cycle where we keep More

                       My Dad

Yesterday, January 22, was the anniversary of the death of my Dad, Murray Shapiro, 31 years ago, an event which changed me forever. It was my first experience of accompanying a dying person and understanding deeply that at the end of life the only thing that remains, the only thing that matters, is love. I commemorate this day every year, as the Day of Forgiveness, because of the powerful experience of forgiveness that he and I shared on his last day, an experience that was very healing and transformative for me. Each year since, the anniversary has been an opportunity for me to reflect on resentments and hurts I might be holding onto with people in my life, the sense of separation I create with them as a result, how I might open my heart more to greater compassion and letting go of the wounds of perceived mistreatment, and at least begin to consider the path of forgiveness.

For many people, forgiveness has negative connotations of condoning or forgetting wrongdoing, or letting the wrongdoer off the hook. But actually, forgiveness is not for the benefit of the person I believe has done me wrong. Rather, it’s about me, about liberating myself from the emotional chains that keep me trapped in the painful experience of the past, where I relive it over and over. It’s also about seeing the bigger picture of any situation, and that each of us is much more than the worst action we might have done. More

Yesterday, Glenn Frey, co-founder of the 70s rock band The Eagles, died. I’ve always loved their music. Of their many popular songs, the one that stands out for me is “Hotel California”. It’s a haunting mystical song, with so many interpretations about what it means. The whole song is great, but it’s those last two lines that, for me, express a profound wisdom.

You can check out any time you like.
But you can never leave.

Over the years, those words have been a kind of spiritual anthem for me, with relevance in many situations. The essential message here seems to be that there is no escaping from our lives and its challenges, no escaping from what we are called to experience and learn. We may think we can hide or avoid some difficult or unpleasant situation, but ultimately, life will keep bringing us back to it, until we deal with it. Only then can we move on. In the bigger picture, perhaps there is no death or endings, but rather transformation into another form or person. There is also a sense of appreciation, gratitude and growth, as the past, present, and future interweave with each other. I think this is especially true with relationships and work. We keep leaving, and we keep coming back, like the Buddhist wheel. Though hopefully, we are a little bit closer each other time. To paraphrase another very popular rock lyric – it can feel like a “long, strange trip” (from Truckin’ by the Grateful Dead).  My aim, though, is to enjoy the ride.

Each season of the year has something important to tell us. Here in Vermont, way up north, this season of winter can be a time of inward reflection and power as the frozen silence speaks to us in ways subtle and dramatic. This is beautifully expressed in the following poem, “Listening to Winter”, by Sister Macrina Wiederkehr, a Benedictine monastic. (Thanks to Rev. Sally Schwager for sharing this in my spiritual counseling class).

I am listening.

I am listening to the seed hidden in the earth.
I am listening to the dark swallowing up the light.
I am listening to faith rising out of doubt.
I am listening to the need to believe without seeing.

I am listening.

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