Wednesday, November 10, 2010

11:11

Back in "the Day" when I was dating the guy who is now my husband a funny thing happened...
One day we were driving in my car, I'm not sure why because usually we motored around in his freezing cold VW Bus-maybe it was in for repairs that day or something, but there we were going out on our date or running errands or whatever it was we were doing and we were done and getting back in my car to go home and he screamed; "AH-H-H-H-H-H!" It made me jump and swerve and I may have screamed back something like "What the heck is wrong?"
Did I almost hit a pedestrian? a dog? what?
He asked "Why does your clock radio say 11:11?"
I said "Geeze-it's broken er something and it always says 11:11!!!"
I explained that I hardly ever noticed it, but thought that it resets itself every time I start the car to 11:11. It hadn't said that before because once I'm driving it starts keeping time from 11:11. It was in fact around 7:00 0r 8:00 at night and my car radio clock flashed 11:11.
"Well, here's the weird thing..." he explained "....all my friends know I have a freaky weird connection to the time 11:11! For years I started noticing that whenever I looked at a clock it was always 11:11, and after I told some of my friends, whenever I would look at a clock and they'd be with me I'd say "Look there it happenend again-it's 11:11...the only time I ever look at a clock it's 11:11! They started to notice how freaky it was- more than a kind of coincidence-it's like the universe will only let me see clocks with 11:11! And now you're telling me that even though it's nowhere near 11:11 I'm looking at your clock that says 11:11?"
He dated some cute girls before me-but I'm the only one he got a "clock message" with.
The rest is history.
It would have been fun if one of our babies had an 11/11 birthday or something, but our five children came when they were supposed to, I think.
Since then whenever I look at a clock and it's 11:11 I smile. It happens a lot.
I also like the Date November 11th. There have been a few years when we've called each other on 11/11 at 11:11. This year it won't work because of our work schedules. He's often in the Lab at Merritt Medical and I'm over at the School doing my "Reading Rotations" in Mrs Miller's class.
There are a few other things that seem sort of special regarding that date. A few years ago my Dad shared with me the fact that 11/11 is the date he considers his "recovery date." He's been Sober since that date 30 something years ago.
Then there's Veterans Day. That must qualify the date as a kind of cosmic and or spiritual date for sure. We honor those who have given their lives in the name of Home and Country and Freedom, on that date. Maybe it's a kind of an acknowledgement and connection between our world and the spirit world-we know and remember them and maybe they know us, we who are their sons and daughters-maybe they get glimpses of who we are, and what we're up to...you know, checking on us to see what we're doing with all that hard won freedom-because they gave us so much. Anyway, Veterans Day feels like a Holy Day.
I once considered the idea of throwing a Big Party next year for 11/11/2011.
But, it dosn't quite feel like the right kind of thing to do.
I'm not sure what day of the week It falls on next year, or what we'll all be doing then , but I hope I'll be able to acknowlege quietly the moment when it's 11:11.