A short story:
George Barnard’s book “The Search for 11:11” arrived in the mail the morning of July 25th and I immediately started reading. I hadn’t eaten breakfast and I knew I needed to take a break, but I just couldn’t put the darn thing down. Then, something interesting happened.
As George talked about a Balinese boy who came down with a mysterious body rash, I was just about to turn the page when something possessed me to pause and glance at the page number – 111 – the sight of which caused my eyes to well up with a few tears because up until that point, I swear, I hadn’t so much as glanced at a page number since I began reading a few hours earlier.
As was my practice, I paused to acknowledge and thank the angels. Then, I went right back to reading the book until a few minutes later, my wife (Nola) interrupted, insisting that I stop to eat some lunch. I told her that I would. But, I wanted to finish the chapter first — which I did. I then turned the page and bent the corner to mark my place when I happened to glance at the name of the next chapter and saw it was Chapter 11. This discovery made me smile because like the page number experience only a few minutes earlier, this was the first time I had noticed any of the chapter numbers.
Could it have been that both examples were simply cases of selective seeing? Perhaps, however, my feelings told me otherwise.
Minutes later, as I ate lunch, my eight year old daughter showed up in the room covered head to toe in a mysterious body rash. Now, we have three daughters, and have seen our share of rashes over the years, but none of our girls had experienced a rash in several years. How strange. I thought, that I had been “prompted” at page 111 of “The Search for 11:11”– right at the part about the boy with the rash.
After lunch I returned to the book and had just finished reading Chapter 11 when once again, the hand of synchronicity struck. This time it had to do with the term “Chapter 11.”
As it happened, my wife stepped into my home office and closed the door right at the precise moment I finished reading Chapter 11. And, strangely enough, the discussion that followed had everything to do with my wife’s sudden fear about what she perceived to be an impending financial calamity.
Am I reaching too far here by drawing your attention to Chapter 11?
Perhaps. But, to give you a little more background, at that point in my life I had been unemployed for 13 consecutive months — the longest stretch of unemployment I had experienced in 20 years of marriage — and although my wife had been a saint throughout, the timing of her meltdown was definitely cause for pause. She just couldn’t take it anymore, she said, just before she unleashed a torrent of anger and anguish until finally, I had had enough.
“You’re dumping on me,” I said, “and I’m not going to sit here and take it.” I then got up and left the room.
Contrary to what you might think, although I have never had to deal with the uncomfortable consequences of such a stretch of unemployment before, I look at it as a blessing in disguise. You see, I have been trying in earnest to make a career change for several years. And, over the last 13 months, what has seemed very clear to me is that the angels have been orchestrating time off in order for me to make the necessary inner changes. In the meantime, this unplanned respite has cost my wife and I our savings, and now, a significant amount of debt –- so you can imagine the stress on my wife. Nothing looks like it’s going our way and yet I feel absolutely certain that the lessons at hand are all about faith, patience and intention. Anyway–
After being subjected to my wife’s anger, I decided I needed some fresh air. At the front door, I put on my sandals and watch. I hadn’t so much as looked at a clock all morning, so I was suddenly curious of the time. Astoundingly, the digital readout on my watch said the time was 1:11! All I could do was grin ear to ear as my wife watched me walk out the door.
Minutes earlier, in her angry outburst, Nola insisted that I take responsibility for her unhappiness. While it was indeed true that I was responsible for the finances in our household, and I needed to deliver, I refused to take responsibility for the way that Nola thought about and reacted to our circumstances as this was against everything I had been guided by the angels to learn.
Were there things I should have or could have been doing that were true to my heart while at the same time better for our finances? Or, was I exactly in the right place at the right time doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing?
Unfortunately, I have rambled on long enough otherwise I would take a little more time to provide examples of the many ways that spirit has been guiding me, assuring me that I am not deluded, not crazy, not being irresponsible towards my family, not being a bad husband and father — basically, to describe all the incredible ways that I have been reassured that I have been following my heart with the truest of intentions. Nevertheless, what is most important for the telling of this story is that Nola and I felt and thought differently about our situation. And, this was now causing stress on our marriage.
Out on my walk, minutes after having glanced at 1:11 on my watch, my mind drifted back to a fascinating convention called “I Can Do It”(sponsored by Hay House Publishers) that Nola and I had recently attended.
At the convention, Nola took a workshop with a psychic and life coach and was so moved, she ended up having a personal reading where among other things, the psychic told her that she didn’t see us having money troubles in the future. (At the time, Nola neglected to tell her that I had already been out of work for ten months.) However, everything else the psychic told her was so completely bang on that as I now walked around the neighborhood, trying as best I could not to hang onto my wife’s angry outburst, I couldn’t help but wonder, if this isn’t a classic case of ‘money troubles,’ then what is?
Strangely, no sooner did I pose this question in my mind, I looked up and saw the first set of numbers I had seen since embarking on my walk — a temporary paper address posted on a nearby building that said “117.” (The building was part of a large construction site where a good hundred or so town homes were being built.) Well, the sight of “117” immediately took me back to a time about a year earlier when I had been so overwhelmed with 1111 sightings for the very first time in my life, out of desperation, I Googled 1111 and soon came across something that renowned angel communicator, Doreen Virtue had written about the significance of 1’s and 7’s — something about money I seemed to recall, but exactly what, I couldn’t remember. In any event, I immediately glanced around for more addresses, only to discover that there wasn’t any other addresses posted on any of the other homes.
Fifteen minutes later, I arrived back home where my wife stood waiting inside the front door with a glass of ice water and an apology. I gladly accepted both and gave my wife a hug. The past several months have been so challenging for us, if not for amazing acts of grace — in this particular instance, synchronicity and angelic prompts — I can’t imagine how I would possibly feel the peace and calm that I do.
A few minutes after I drank that glass of water and made up with my wife, I found the Doreen Virtue information about “117” on Angelscribe. Here is what it said:
“1’s next to sevens means that you will experience great fortune, synchronicity, or what some people would call ‘good luck’ that will lead you to manifest your hearts desire.”
Incidentally, that rash that my daughter came down with was never identified. The doctor thought she was displaying all the classic signs of mononucleosis, however, the spot test and blood work she had came back negative. One week later, the rash faded and never returned.
