Numbers

11-20-09. That's the date of my last blog. 11 from 20 leaves nine. 11 is the year we're in now. 20 is the number of sales I made on my website last month. Nine is the number of life and death. Its fitting because in the last 13 months (thirteen being the number for friendship and love in Jewish lore) and 21 days (which is 3 times 7..you get the drift) there has been much of both in my life. If big moves, big changes, and monumental miracles are just a compounding of small moments, then its no wonder that my life has changes so much in those 417 days.

In six months, I will be moving across the country. I will find myself in Chicago by August 1st, which is fittingly ••Lughnasadh. Hmm. But before that happens, there are many small choices and small moves that have to be made.

In the day in age when politicians pay thousands of dollars for one night in some ritzy hotel room, on the other side of this societal paradigm, we've begun our meager budgeting. So then the spiral of small movements that will eventually find us in our cultural Valhalla is brought into sharp notice.

Even still, when the small events that eventually snowball into life-changing experiences are happening, we rarely recognize them.

This algorithm can be applied to any situation, allowing you to see that things had to fall perfectly into place in order for things to happen the way they have. So much more relevant and sharply so than the idea that everything happens for a reason, without coincidence, is the idea that each little perfectly defined moment is constructed with many small moments.

Another manifestation of this belief is when things go horribly wrong. My peer was watching the news recently when he witnessed the standard news story play out on the television in front of him. It was then that he thought to himself, "How do you get to the point in your life where your freedom has been revoked and the SWAT team has invaded your home?"

My answer for him was the same as the rest of these instances: by a series of small decisions.

So if life is but a series of moments that compound to create a John Hughes era style montage, then the same would be true for those 417 days.

Life is compiled of numbers, 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a minute. Each one of those seconds is imbued with its own essence, its own message. Each day counts for one, maybe two, depending on the value of the day's monumental effects on you..although there are also those seemingly irrelevant days that you wouldn't think to include in the ledger of your life. But the thing is, when you really look at it, how many of those huge moments were created by many of those irrelevant moments?

There's a reason why esoteric and gnostic practitioners revere numbers. (Other than being mono-maniacal). They recognized that each number represents possibility. It is the mere building block for something bigger. Jewish mysticism dictates an entire sect of astrology and horoscopes purely based on numbers. And the paths intersect, for even mathematicians recognize that there are numbers in nature. For example, the golden ration is everywhere that life is. If we can find one set of numbers everywhere, then just like large numbers, large moments can be broken down into smaller components. As our move draws nearer and life has many more of these impeccable little moments that provide building blocks for the tower of life, I will share.

"Life is a painting, and your face is smashed up against it. Each moment provides a step back so you can see what you've been looking at all along." AWO

**Lughnasadh is the festival that celebrates harvest, and is when the ancients would begin to finalize plans for winter housing, and many other domestic arrangements were made. (IE marriage.)