A SPECIAL GROUNDHOG DAY MESSAGE!

One of my favorite old movies is "Groundhog Day," starring Bill Murray as the cantankerous weatherman who is forced to re-live February 2 until he gets it right. His hilarious responses to his predicament offer us hope. After all, if this type-A, time-pressured, cynical, irritable, arrogant, greedy fellow can finally transform himself into a lover, perhaps it is possible for us as well--in time for Valentine’s Day!

Why is being present in today such a challenge? Perhaps we are so identified with our past history that we let it block us from following our hearts. Is your past an anchor, or is it just the wake of your boat? Perhaps we cling to the past because we fear the unknown. Yet it is also an incredible FREEDOM to release the past. What a radical freedom it is to not be who I was yesterday: driving my wastemobile down Haste Street with my mind ricocheting between the regrets of my past and the worries about my future. With sex, we’re completely present in the moment. Isn’t that why we crave it so much? What if all of our lives could be lived with such joyous presence? The Dalai Lama suggests that we approach love and cooking with reckless abandon!

Groundhog Day is the modern, secularized version of an ancient pre-Christian holy day known as Imbolc, which occurs midway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Imbolc means "in the belly," and it signified the quickening of new life in the womb of Mother Earth as the seeds, planted at Solstice, began to stir. The Solstices were a time when social propriety was relaxed and lovemaking was carried out as part of the rituals of fertility, so some of those seeds may have been planted as well. Brigit, "the bright one," goddess of the hearth, of poets, artisans, blacksmiths, and of fertility and midwifery, was honored on this day. Priestesses kept a sacred fire always burning in the temples in her name. Fire was associated with cleansing and purification.

The Catholic Church took over this pagan tradition by canonizing Brigit, who was sometimes called the foster mother or midwife of Christ, and the protector of households. "Candlemas" (St. Brigit’s Day) marked the ritual purification of Mary, forty days after giving birth to Christ. All the candles to be used for the year by the church were blessed that day, and people placed a lit candle in each window of their homes. There was a saying, "If Candlemas Day be fair and bright, winter will have another flight." (Six more weeks of winter.)

What new seeds of creativity are stirring within you? What new flame can you ignite with your creative fire? How might you live if this were the last day, or the only day in your life?