Sunday, January 1, 2012

2011 In Review...but first, about my signs from God.

To say that 2011 has been the craziest, most challenging, and happiest year of my life would be a gross understatement.  The truth is, I already knew 2011 would be different somehow, before the year even started.  I'm not a psychic by any means, but I had been getting clues since September 2010 that 2011 was going to be a big year.

Disclaimer: I'm not crazy or devoutly religious.  I believe in God and the principles of Christianity but this was my first experience with something like this and so the explanation of "signs from God" is the best thing I can come up with to explain it.  So don't call me crazy.

I don't know when I really started noticing the repeat appearance of "11:11" but I would say it was around September of 2010, probably right after my birthday.  I just started seeing that number everywhere - mostly on a clock, but a couple of times it was my total at a restaurant or something like that.  It just seemed like every time I looked at the clock, there it was  - 11:11.  It happened in the morning and in the afternoon when I would randomly think what time is it? and there it was.  Coworkers would stop by my desk to chat for a minute and then ask me what time it was - and you guessed it, many times it was 11:11.  I would receive texts and emails timestamped at 11:11.

I think most people have heard that when you look at the clock and it's 11:11, you are supposed to make a wish.  So I did that - and it didn't come true.  I wished for something else - again, no luck.  Finally I decided the third time was the charm and changed my wish again - nothing happened.  That's when I decided that something else had to be going on here.  This clearly wasn't about wishes or at least one of mine would have come true.  That's when I started thinking that maybe it was some kind of sign from God about something.  Maybe something was going to happen on November 11?  I waited the whole day with baited breath for something - anything - to happen and to my disappointment (and I have to admit, relief) nothing happened.  I gave up trying to figure out what 11:11 was supposed to mean, but I kept seeing it over and over.  It got to be pretty frustrating.

Then, a year ago yesterday, I was in the shower getting ready to go out for New Year's Eve when it hit me out of the blue.  11:11 was not a month and a day, a time, a Bible verse, or anything like that - it was a year.  2011, that was getting ready to start in a few short hours, was going to be an important year for me.  And boy, was it ever.