A friend of mine recently mentioned he’d re-watched the movie Groundhog Day, and it felt incredibly familiar to life now, at least for him. But I totally got what he meant, each day is so similar to the next at the moment!
This is what he said, how does it land with you?
Not much happens differently in the external dimension.
But there is also the internal dimension. In Zen, they talk about a beginner’s mind, seeing the ordinary in a new way. Even if what we see is the same, the way we see can change.
The Zen teacher Suzuki Roshi liked to say,“Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.”
It made me think, “If we live this time as if it was our last, not as preparation for something else, what might we learn?”
In the movie Groundhog Day, the main character eventually learns from the monotony to be increasingly open-hearted and selfless. He takes a new approach to his ordinary days.
Maybe this is what we can do in this time. We can bring a beginner’s mind to each day, and see beyond our limited self orientation.
Brother David Steindl-Rast may have done this the best in the exquisite video called A Good Day. If you have not seen it, it is worth a watch. He suggests gratefulness is the key to fully living each day.
As we continue to quarantine and be as safe as possible, may we each find a way to engage, freshly.
As Thich Nhat Hanh liked to remind us, “The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive.”
May this day in your life, today, not just be another day.
May your day be well lived.
I love Soren’s thinking here, and Brother David’s video. They both remind us that life offers our attention a truly amazing experience every single minute. We just have to remember to calm the busy mind, pause, and reconnect with it – our life unfolding in this moment.
Soren and the Wisdom 2.0 team have some wonderful meetup’s planned which you might be interested in. Click here.
If you’d like to bring more mindfulness into your life you might like to join our next MBSR course. Arrange a free discovery session to find out what the course involves. If it appeals, we’ll book you on. If not, no worries. Click here for more info.