This 365 day project features photos that include words (actual or implied),
text, books,
writing, letters and numbers, signs, libraries, and.... well, you get the idea.


2.11.2010

day 44 of 365

In honor of day 44, I'm going to tell you about the mysterious sort of connection I have to repeating number 4s.

I had never had a favorite or special number in my life until about 8 years ago, when I started seeing 44 and 444 and 4444 everywhere. I mean, I don't just see them a little bit. I’m talking about seeing them 5, 10, 20 times a day. On signs, clocks, license plates, in magazines, books, store windows, on TV, in cloud formations, written on the sides of buildings, as part of special phone numbers, on my odometer, on my cereal box, printed on money….. everywhere. If I purposely look for other number combinations (555, 321, 8675309) I see more 4s. If I purposely try NOT to see 4s, I see them even more.

So I did what it seems billions of others have done before me, and googled the repeating number phenomenon. And I discovered that, depending on who/what I wanted to believe, it could mean ANYthing… or nothing. It could be a spiritual message from the universe or statistical coincidence. It could be angels smiling down on me or the wonder of mathematics. I even ran across a funny and grounding poem that features the repeating number theme. Here it is (and I’m sorry I can’t link you to it’s author but I lost the source - - so thanks for the poem, whoever-you-are!)

Imaginary Numbers
I have a friend who does
numerology in California
she called me up one
night & said that 444
was the number of Wal-Mart, which is
30 percent off of 666
& we were both amazed
& then I hung up the
phone & said “Now I
remember why we
moved to Iowa.”

So anyway. Maybe someday I’ll find out what it all means – that there’s a specific reason for me to be having this connection to repeating 4s. But for right now, it’s enough that they’re there, quietly demanding attention. It’s always comforting when they show up. If I see them many times in a day, it’s usually a day when I need reassurance that everything is ok, and once I get that message, then it turns out that everything is, indeed, ok after all.

You can read about another blogger’s numerical experience at m.heart’s secret notebooks wild pages blog posting for January 21st.

Happy Day 44!

8 comments:

  1. What an interesting post, I love it. It is a bit like when you look for new car, suddenly you start seeing lots of the car you are interested in.

    As for the photograph, very abstract, love it.

    Si

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  2. I'm getting this because right after Mother died and ever since I would look at the clock at odd moments [reaching for the tea pot, turning on the car radio or reaching to change the volume etc etc] and the digital clock would be reading duplicate numbers such as 5:55, 3:33 etc. The ones that seemed to attract my random attention were 1:11 or 11:11 [her birthday is the 11th] I say 'random' because it inevitably happened when it wasn't on my mind and it took awhile for me to notice it was happening at all. Like you, I kind of like it and have come to greet the happening with a Hello.

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  3. Wow, interesting. 4 seems so random and sort of bland though that's only from my perspective. I am not going to think of the blandness of 4 any longer. ;-)

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  4. Well, I have to favorite numbers and can't choose which one I like most (5 & 9).

    I sometimes see things repeatedly, or think of something and it happens, but not as frequent as it happens to you.

    I've also heard from someone or read it somewhere on the net that the number "4" is the basis of every number in the world. by adding or subtracting any number, you'll eventually end up having 4.. don't know the truth in it.

    Anyway, that one cool photo.

    I'll have to admit something though. I have bad eyes and reading white text in black backrounds makes my eyes hurt. So, I'll try to comment once on a while without reading (if you don't mind) I'm sorry about that.

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  5. In my unprofessional opinion, seeing 4's is your way of grounding yourself, it is reassuring you that everything will be fine. I once did this with numbers, mine were 1,3,5. If I didn't see these numbers they would dance in my head, the number of possible combination's would just go through my head over and over. With enough of these numbers dancing in my head I could push past the fear, or push through anxiety. I think that it is a healthy way of grounding oneself, it beats the heck out of medications in my opinion.

    I like a lot of numbers, my analytical side of me does, my emotional side uses them when need be.

    Cool blog and another wonderful photo. Thank you for sharing this.

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  6. great post, a friend of mine had the opposite reaction to recurring 4s and that was based on reading about 4s and 8s and fate in numerology. Another friend used to say she knew it was time to 'move on' when certain numbers started to appear.

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  7. I enjoyed reading this. I don't recall this happening to me, maybe I need to pay more attention.

    Loved the 4's on the mailbox. Great compliment to your post.

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  8. This year's superbowl was the 44th and Obama is our 44th president. You picked a great year for that number.

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