Antidote for a Groundhog Year

January 1, 2021

Happy New Year. It doesn’t look like much has changed, does it? Or that there are a whole lot of reasons to be happy.

Over the past months, I kept thinking about “Groundhog Day.” Remember that movie? Bill Murray plays a guy who gets stuck in time, living the same day over and over.

Every day starts the same way: An alarm clock changes from 5:59 to 6 a.m. The radio plays Sonny and Cher singing “I Got You Babe.”

Wake up, do the same things, go nowhere, go to bed. Feel familiar? I got you, babe.

In the film, the guy is overtaken by despair and kills himself, many times. But each time he’s woken again at 6 a.m., same song.

Eventually, he uses his predicament to grow as a person. He takes up French, ice sculpting and piano. The spell breaks when he learns to live in the present and becomes his best self, every day.

In our real-life Groundhog Year, most of us haven’t learned French or piano. In fact, life’s been miserable for a lot of people.

But we, too, have been learning to take joy and gratitude in small things, and many things we may take for granted. Our pets, our health, a stroll around the block, spending time with people we love. Even in missing someone we’re separated from, there can be a reminder of the joy in having them to love in the first place.

Unlike the film, we know that in real life each day is just one take, no repeat. So we’ve all been doing what we can to make the best of what we’ve got.

Fortunately, in real life, something to break the spell is on the way — a shot in the arm. Even though, for most of us, it will happen months from now, it’s comforting to know it’s coming.

So our Groundhog Year goes on, but there’s hope. There’s also this: In the film, Bill Murray gets to keep all the skills he acquired when the spell breaks. So do we.