Rabbits

Rabbits

Month with an R in it. My mother-in-law, apparently, always said ‘Rabbits’ on the first day of a month with an R in it. Strange, the customs we pick up and carry on. She was born and raised in Shanghai, so does that mean it was a Chinese custom, or a family tradition or just a joke between sisters?

Tomorrow will be Groundhog Day, made famous by the rather irritating film of the same name. How these odd customs ever got started is a mystery.

Some days feel like Groundhog Day the movie, though. Sometimes when a task is particularly tedious you feel like you’re continually reworking the same ground. 

Maybe there’s an element of truth in the concept of Groundhog Day the movie, in that life is an opportunity to grow. Wiser perhaps. More like God, hopefully. Less selfish and sinful, less stressed out and anxious. Less driven. More willing to stop and smell the roses, listen to a child laugh, a bird sing.

And because God is so merciful and gracious, we get more than one chance. If we’ve blown it, we just need to pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off, and rededicate ourselves to going forward again. 

And with God’s help, little by little perhaps, we will be changed.

Takes the tedium out of the Groundhog Day concept. There’s a challenge there. To go for it, right til the final breath.

That’s what I’m aiming to do.

Rabbits.