Groundhog Day…February second…The thirty third day of the year. This is a day that I used as the birthday for Marcus Fox, one of the main characters in the book, The Secret of Mankind. It’s a day that the groundhog would either see his shadow or would not, and the ensuing result would be the determining factor if there was another six weeks of Winter, or if Spring would be coming soon. Of course, old wives tales have little to no scientific value and certainly no one person or creature can tell the future, or in this case, the severity of the weather by simply seeing his or her shadow or any other act that is not connected to the cause and effect relationship that which time operates.
Also I used this day because it’s the thirty-third day of the year, and the same number of years (33) that Mr. Joseph Fox was away from the United States. The numbers I throw around at the first of this story are there to show the similarities with numbers involving the year 1900, but all in all, they really don’t mean anything. In my own time, I have seen that there are always coincidences with dates and numbers, but as time goes on, these numbers, I’ve learned, don’t have any bearing on the future or the present or anything else. These numbers and dates are strictly coincidences.
Just like the groundhog seeing his shadow, no arbitrary act, random number or peculiar coincidence can foretell the future. No matter how hard we try to make a number or a date become a precursor of things to come, we can’t. Life happens regardless of the man-made numerical or coincidental details that we like to attach these things to. Of course, the presentation of Punxsutawney Phil (the famous groundhog in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania) is about bringing the media and onlookers from all over which in turn, brings more revenue to the town, but it’s still just a show.
Life happens, and we have to deal with it as it’s presented. Of course, there are things that still defy logic, and things that will be considered uncanny or could be considered miracles, of sorts, but everything happens because some other event happened before it. This may be obvious, but I’ve seen that you have to know the obvious before you can really know anything else. Which brings me to two points, I’ll discuss briefly.
I read a book a while back called, The Brain Mechanic. (A book you can purchase on the Shop page of this website.) The gist of the book was this:
Think before you react.
People usually react to an event due to the frame of mind that they are in when the event happens. For example, if you’re sitting in a chair in a room and all of a sudden someone comes along and knocks you out of the chair. Your reaction will vary depending on what you were thinking about prior to you being knocked out of the chair. You may laugh, if you’re in a good mood, or may be ready to fight, if in a bad mood. What I gathered from reading this book and this scenario is this: Take the random, unrelated events that you have no control over…take these happenings at face value.
In anything that happens to you, only react to the event itself. Don’t read into it more than what is there. Dismiss your previous notions or predetermined biases, and just react to what happen. Try to find out why it happened before you react. I say this because if we know the cause and effect in most situations, we are less likely to over react and make things worse.
And my other point is this, just like Groundhog Day, we can’t foretell of what’s going to happen based on anything, but the events that happened prior to what is about to happen. Our actions are the effects of previous causes and they lead to other effects. Life is a continuous flow of events. Again, this is this is stating the obvious, but my point is this:
The future is what we make of it.
For example: You can’t win the lottery if you don’t play. You can’t become a millionaire if all you do is dream or wish. You can’t do anything until you try to do it. Dreams are just random wishes, if you don’t put a plan into place and turn these wishes into real tangible things that you want to accomplish.
It’s taken me a while to understand that consistent bad luck isn’t a real thing. You bring things on yourself because of bad decisions and making the same mistakes over and over. If you say that a planet was in a certain movement around the sun is why bad things happen (commonly known as ‘mercury in retrograde’), is about as logical as believing that the six weeks of winter will be determined solely by the actions of a groundhog.
We are responsible for our how our lives turn out. No outside force can make or break us, if it attempts to, we have to accept this obstacle, move forward and learn from our mistakes. It has probably been said before, but we must be able to accept our wrongdoings and learn from them. In doing so, we have to understand why things happen, not blame them on arbitrary events that had nothing to do with the event itself.
As someone told me before, "If you don't screw up, you aren't living." And I've been told, "If you don't learn from your mistakes, you're bound to repeat them." I know these are old phrases said a million times before, but just because its old and overused, doesn't mean that someone somewhere might need a reminder...because the groundhog can't tell you.
* *
Please subscribe to get an exclusive download of the prologue and first chapter of my novel, The Secret Of Mankind.
You will NOT be bombarded with emails. You will NOT get emails from any other businesses or services by subscribing. You will only receive updates of my blog and future giveaways.
Thank you for reading, subscribing and your support.
Jason
Also I used this day because it’s the thirty-third day of the year, and the same number of years (33) that Mr. Joseph Fox was away from the United States. The numbers I throw around at the first of this story are there to show the similarities with numbers involving the year 1900, but all in all, they really don’t mean anything. In my own time, I have seen that there are always coincidences with dates and numbers, but as time goes on, these numbers, I’ve learned, don’t have any bearing on the future or the present or anything else. These numbers and dates are strictly coincidences.
Just like the groundhog seeing his shadow, no arbitrary act, random number or peculiar coincidence can foretell the future. No matter how hard we try to make a number or a date become a precursor of things to come, we can’t. Life happens regardless of the man-made numerical or coincidental details that we like to attach these things to. Of course, the presentation of Punxsutawney Phil (the famous groundhog in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania) is about bringing the media and onlookers from all over which in turn, brings more revenue to the town, but it’s still just a show.
Life happens, and we have to deal with it as it’s presented. Of course, there are things that still defy logic, and things that will be considered uncanny or could be considered miracles, of sorts, but everything happens because some other event happened before it. This may be obvious, but I’ve seen that you have to know the obvious before you can really know anything else. Which brings me to two points, I’ll discuss briefly.
I read a book a while back called, The Brain Mechanic. (A book you can purchase on the Shop page of this website.) The gist of the book was this:
Think before you react.
People usually react to an event due to the frame of mind that they are in when the event happens. For example, if you’re sitting in a chair in a room and all of a sudden someone comes along and knocks you out of the chair. Your reaction will vary depending on what you were thinking about prior to you being knocked out of the chair. You may laugh, if you’re in a good mood, or may be ready to fight, if in a bad mood. What I gathered from reading this book and this scenario is this: Take the random, unrelated events that you have no control over…take these happenings at face value.
In anything that happens to you, only react to the event itself. Don’t read into it more than what is there. Dismiss your previous notions or predetermined biases, and just react to what happen. Try to find out why it happened before you react. I say this because if we know the cause and effect in most situations, we are less likely to over react and make things worse.
And my other point is this, just like Groundhog Day, we can’t foretell of what’s going to happen based on anything, but the events that happened prior to what is about to happen. Our actions are the effects of previous causes and they lead to other effects. Life is a continuous flow of events. Again, this is this is stating the obvious, but my point is this:
The future is what we make of it.
For example: You can’t win the lottery if you don’t play. You can’t become a millionaire if all you do is dream or wish. You can’t do anything until you try to do it. Dreams are just random wishes, if you don’t put a plan into place and turn these wishes into real tangible things that you want to accomplish.
It’s taken me a while to understand that consistent bad luck isn’t a real thing. You bring things on yourself because of bad decisions and making the same mistakes over and over. If you say that a planet was in a certain movement around the sun is why bad things happen (commonly known as ‘mercury in retrograde’), is about as logical as believing that the six weeks of winter will be determined solely by the actions of a groundhog.
We are responsible for our how our lives turn out. No outside force can make or break us, if it attempts to, we have to accept this obstacle, move forward and learn from our mistakes. It has probably been said before, but we must be able to accept our wrongdoings and learn from them. In doing so, we have to understand why things happen, not blame them on arbitrary events that had nothing to do with the event itself.
As someone told me before, "If you don't screw up, you aren't living." And I've been told, "If you don't learn from your mistakes, you're bound to repeat them." I know these are old phrases said a million times before, but just because its old and overused, doesn't mean that someone somewhere might need a reminder...because the groundhog can't tell you.
* *
Please subscribe to get an exclusive download of the prologue and first chapter of my novel, The Secret Of Mankind.
You will NOT be bombarded with emails. You will NOT get emails from any other businesses or services by subscribing. You will only receive updates of my blog and future giveaways.
Thank you for reading, subscribing and your support.
Jason
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