It is cold here today. I have turned the heat on for the first time this year and sit here in a scarf as I type. It is new and cozy yet feels all too familiar.  Change is in the air. The seasons are spiraling. Late summer is folding into fall. Summer clothes will soon be in bins replaced by warm layers. Enough single mittens will be strewn around my house without a match to drive me crazy.

Life is a series of spirals. Seasons change. Day turns into night. Annoying patterns you thought you were done with show up. Perhaps the purpose of life is to simply widen the spiral- the wider and looser the spirals, the more breath and perspective life offers us. When we are unaware of our own spiral patterns or refuse to see them, they remain tight and repeat often. This can often be just a little infuriating.

Yes, our “stuff” repeats- sometimes in such similar ways you swear you have been cast in “Groundhog Day.” Is there some pattern in your life that keeps coming around again and again? Have you ever thought you figured something out only to see it coming back towards you? Isn’t it funny that the spirals we remember are the ones that tend to drive us crazy?

Gets me every time.

Spirals show up and lead us on over time. Time then may simply be a tool, an opportunity to learn what we came here to learn and like any great teacher, time offers us more than one chance to master a skill. The spirals in our life come back around until we get it- whether we like it or not.

Becoming aware of our spirals and patterns is a huge first step. From there, we can learn from, feel and surrender into whatever current lesson we are currently being asked to learn.

Maybe this awareness and willingness to engage with our stuff is all that is needed to shift the trajectory of the spiral; to free us of the “Groundhog day” feeling we get from some of our toughest and most entrenched patterns. Bill Murray’s character spirals thru the gambit of emotions in dealing with Ned. He tries to be nice to him. He tries to ignore him. He tried to creep him out. He punches him and finally, he accepts him. What if we show up and deal with the Ned Ryerson’s of our world? Who knows how those shifts could help bend the spiral into new territory, new adventures, new love, new life? It is worth a shot.