I was relieved to look out of my window this morning and not see snow all over the ground. That isn’t quite how it works in the movie Groundhog Day but it does mean that February 3 has arrived and I am not stuck in a loop.

I went to watch the film last night with some folks from St Clement’s in their cool underground facility, The Mish. Yesterday was Groundhog Day and, especially with the snowy weather (a key component of the plot) it was the perfect night to watch that movie. As before, I found it funny, moving and hopeful although there is also a level of hopelessness too – it takes selfish weatherman Phil Connors untold repeats of one day before he finally begins to do good things for other people because this seems to him a right way to act. The film doesn’t make clear how long he spends in his fugue but, from the skills he learns it is clearly more than the number of days shown on screen (and, at times, those feel like they are going endlessly on and on).

What the film also doesn’t show is how Mr Connors gets on once he is finally returned to the normal flow of time; one can only hope that it works out okay for him and that his lifetime of experience will stand him in good stead as he moves forward, one and only one day at a time. And, now time for me to post this and get on with my own day, leaning on God’s help to live well without an eternity to practise for what I will encounter!

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