There are at least five effective pathways for traveling inward to gain insight into the composition of our shadow: 1) soliciting feedback from others as to how they perceive us, 2) looking at what we might be projecting onto others, 3) examining our “slips” of the tongue and behavior, and looking at what is really happening when we are perceived other than we intended to be perceived, 4) looking at what makes us laugh, our sense of humor, and 5) studying our dreams, daydreams, and fantasies.
As this is being written, our culture is celebrating one of its stranger holidays, Groundhog Day. The first “official” Groundhog Day came about on February 2, 1887, in a small town in Pennsylvania. The idea was hatched by the town newspaper editor, who for some unknown reason declared that this innocent rodent was a proficient weather forecaster. And so a legend was born.
But the actual origin of Groundhog Day can be traced much further back to early Christians in Europe and the custom of Candlemas Day, which marked the midpoint between Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. According to legend, on Candlemas Day, clear and sunny weather signified a long, harsh winter, while cloudy conditions indicated that warmer weather was approaching.
All of which leads us to today, when we look to the world’s furriest weather forecaster to see if he’s gonna see his shadow and be frightened back into his burrow for six more weeks of winter, or if he will see no shadow and say, well-hey-howdy, I smell spring in the air, let’s get it on!
It was amazing to me to find that the groundhog (also known as a whistle pig — I love that!) is actually the largest member of the squirrel family. Their habits are such that they gorge all summer and sleep all winter. How good is that? And their underground burrows have separate rooms for defecation, also known as bathrooms. How cool is that?? And they have some pretty righteous courting and mating habits that I won’t go into here, but suffice it to say, these are pretty clever and creative critters. I’d be willing to trust them as weather advisors.
At this point, are you wondering if there’s a point to this blog? Maybe. When was the last time you looked at your own “shadow”? And were you frightened and did you run back to your burrow? Or did you say, wow, I’m more than I thought I was! — there’s a big old hunk of me that is yet to be discovered and explored — a lot of which is bound to be good — bring it on!
The capacity to look more deeply within ourselves is not narcissism or navel-gazing, but rather a rare form of courage. . . And water overflows from one dry patch to another, so you cannot be selfish in digging for it . . . Lift the whole thing up and then your roots will go down and life will be green and fresh.
Happy Groundhog’s Day!