Today is Groundhog Day!!

IT’S GROUNDHOG DAY!

"That's right, woodchuck-chuckers -- it's ... Groundhog Day!" You may or may not recognize that line from the Bill Murray movie "Groundhog Day." This is one of my most favorite movies however; if you don't live in the United States, you may not even know that February 2 is Groundhog Day, or what it represents: the day when the superstitious look to a small mammal to determine how soon spring will arrive.

In the movie, Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is trapped in a 24-hour time period that seems to repeat itself endlessly. Day after day nothing he does allows him to move forward with his life.

Once Connors realizes what is going on, he gives himself over to all types of
pleasure: gratuitous sex, crime, and selfishly trying to woo Andie MacDowell's character. Eventually he learns that all of this leaves him empty inside, and Murray begins to find ways to better himself and serve others. This being a movie from Hollywood, Connors eventually ends up with the girl, and they set off to live happily ever after, beyond Groundhog Day.

Phil Connors' quest reminds me of one that many of us find ourselves living in even today. Here is what some of us do daily to find OUR fulfillment in life:

* A quest for knowledge

* Dedication to pleasure

* Possessions

* Commitment to work

* Rivalry with others

* Political power

* Unrivaled riches

* Children

* Long life

* Food and drink

In the end, none of these efforts brought Phil the lasting pleasure he was seeking. It was all, in his words, "a chasing after the wind." He only found one thing that could give him the sense of meaning that he sought: Learning to look outside of ourselves and make a dedicated effort to help others.

It's Groundhog Day today!

Do some of us still feel like Phil Connors, trapped in an endless and maybe even meaningless routine? Do all of our attempts to find purpose and meaning in life leave us right back where we started? In the end, most of us learn what Phil Conner learned on Groundhog Day: happiness begins with looking outside ourselves.

These are my thoughts, what are yours?
Steve