Never Been Here Before

I really enjoyed the movie, “Edge of Tomorrow.” I’ve seen it twice. In a nutshell …

… the movie unfolds in a near future in which an alien race has hit the Earth in an unrelenting assault, unbeatable by any military unit in the world. Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage now finds himself inexplicably thrown into a time loop-forcing him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again … and again. But with each battle, Cage becomes able to engage the adversaries with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt). And, as Cage and Rita take the fight to the aliens, each repeated encounter gets them one step closer to defeating the enemy. [summary from www.rottentomatoes.com]

My favorite line from the movie is the when Rita asks Cage, “What do we do now?” The time loop story line implies that Rita and Cage are reliving the same sequence of events and learning each time to get better and better, to go farther and farther. At this particular moment in the move, Cage responds, “I don’t know … I’ve never been here before!” And then they move forward together.

Many times, I feel I am caught in a time loop myself — seemingly doing the same things over and over. And then I come to a point and realize … “I have never been here before.”

I love that moment – especially when I am fully awake and aware. Because that moment is something special and powerful – my life is about to encounter something new. I will be participating in creation. I will have the opportunity to learn, grow, act, and feel in brand new ways. From that moment forward, my life and experience will be different. I will be making history. What choices will I make?

The reality is that our lives are not like the movie in which we relive past events, or like a video game in which we can replay various levels. Our lives our totally unique — we are not in a time loop even though it may feel like that at times. Our lives are the sum of our moment-by-moment choices. We create moment-by-moment. The incredible truth is that each moment “we have never been here before” – and therefore each moment is a chance to fully live with great anticipation of what is to come.