For several years I taught a Groundhog Day Workshop.
I revealed nothing beyond its quirky title, but somehow every year it sold out.
I started the workshop with a joke.
And then I taught a yoga flow that was 20-minutes long, ending with drawing the blinds for Final Rest.
Everyone was very confused that I was seemingly ending the 2-hour workshop an hour and forty minutes early.
Minutes later, I re-started the class with the same joke.
Then I taught a 40-minute version, once again ending in Savasana.
Finally, opening with my same joke, I taught the class a third and final time for a more elaborate 60-minute flow, ending it again in Corpse Pose.
And then I told the joke one last time.
Here’s the joke.
(And I promise I’ll only tell it once).
A group of construction workers has lunch together every day.
And every single day Sal, the burliest one, opens his brown paper bag, shakes his head and mutters:
“Damn. Ham on rye, again.”
This goes on for quite a while, day after day, always the same:
“Damn. Ham on rye, again!”
…until one day someone on the crew finally pipes up and asks:
“Sal, if you hate ham on rye so much, why don’t you just ask your wife to pack you something else?”
Sal is dumbfounded.
It takes him a full minute, but then he responds:
“What wife?… I pack my own lunch.”
* * * * *
I loved that everything in that workshop was taught by the repeated joke and the repeated physical experience.
I didn’t need to spell out any insights, or offer any advice from the vast yoga / wisdom tradition.
Nonetheless, the lesson was abundantly clear:
If we’re going to escape our own Groundhog Day loops, we have to stop complaining constantly and wholehearted about, and instead take responsibility for, the lunches we more or less pack for ourselves.
* * * * *
2020 is a Leap Year.
That’s why the theme for this Meditation of the Month (HERE) is Taking the Quantum Leap.
Now is really the perfect time to contemplate breakthroughs.
And…now is always the perfect time to pack a new lunch!
Namaste for Now,
2 Responses
Thank you Edward for your beautiful and humorous insight about Ground Hog Day. I too have a story about this day. My mother, who was always frugal about her finances and very loving, but punctual and consistent about her habits had a great love of Ground Hog Day. I didn’t give it much importance…even though I did enjoy the movie of the same name.
Well mom faded into the fog of Alzheimer’s and she did not go lightly. It took over 10 years of watching her decline — almost a dedication of effort on her part. I DO think she chose her day to die though… on 02/02/02. Ground Hog Day. She loved numbers and I think this was her last final act. Though it may sound silly. So now I celebrate Ground Hog Day knowing that mom made it her tribute to a life well lived!
Thanks for all you do … I have recently be listening to your meditations on freaking out about money — as I am now the age when mom was diagnosed.– and many life changes around retirement and money have come my way.
Namaste –or as I prefer to say — No Mistakes
I love all of this, Marti! Thank you so much for sharing here.