The Black Cat Calendar and Wabi Sabi

Two eights, or infinity?

I wrote this as a comment in an earlier post below:

"I have just gone to change the date on the black cat calendar to today's date and found out I can't, because there is no number 3 on any of the 2 blocks. 
Which means I can't make the dates 3, 13, 23(my birth-date), 30 or 31 appear with this wooden black cat calendar.
Which may be great if you're superstitious and don't ever want to see 13 associated with a black cat, but as a far as a calendar goes, it's no good.
The problem is that there should not be two eights, one of them should be a three instead of an eight.
I could buy some red paint and try to modify it myself, but I think I'll just leave it on the date that I purchased it, if nothing else, it will make a good conversation piece, and it will help me to remember the number on my car number-plate."

If you had read through the posts below, you would know about the role, the number sequence 11:11, synchronicity, books, movies, certain blogs, the number 23, and a certain black cat played or play in my life.

Well, I bought this wooden black cat calendar on Sunday 27th March, 2011 form a shop in Byron Bay called  
"Kathmandu Connection" (of all names), which is located at 3/9-11 Byron Street (just so I could throw in one more 11;-)

Some of the things I bought on March 27th

Part of my number-plate

Then I took it home and set it to the correct date, and discovered that two sideways eights were over the number 27, which is the infinity symbol on the DVD that I bought that day also.

When I was taking a photo of my "Grateful Dead" sticker on my windshield for the post below this one, I was curious to see what the numbers on my plate added up to.
It was 23, but the number 878 was also contained in the blocks for 27 on the calendar...
and if I showed you my bank account number ... which I'm not going to for obvious reasons ... the sequence 8827 comes up in that perfect order somewhere in my eight digit account number.

 But the point is, that no matter how meaningful this number sequence turned out to be on the day that I bought it, the fact is it was all from an accident, or imperfection in the product ...

Wabi Sabi the Japanese might say.

Which made me think of a book I purchased a year, or two ago about a cat named Wabi Sabi.

Quoted from this site on Wabi Sabi;

http://nobleharbor.com/tea/chado/WhatIsWabi-Sabi.htm

"Pared down to its barest essence, wabi-sabi is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature, of accepting the natural cycle of growth, decay, and death. 
It's simple, slow, and uncluttered-and it reveres authenticity above all. 
Wabi-sabi is flea markets, not warehouse stores; aged wood, not Pergo; rice paper, not glass. 
It celebrates cracks and crevices and all the other marks that time, weather, and loving use leave behind. 
It reminds us that we are all but transient beings on this planet-that our bodies as well as the material world around us are in the process of returning to the dust from which we came. 
Through wabi-sabi, we learn to embrace liver spots, rust, and frayed edges, and the march of time they represent.

A  favorite Japanese phrase for describing wabi-sabi is "natsukashii furusato," or an old memory of my hometown. 
(This is a prevalent mind-set in Japan these days, as people born in major urban areas such as Tokyo and Osaka wax nostalgic over grandparents' country houses that perhaps never were. 
They can even "rent" grandparents who live in prototypical country houses and spend the weekend there.)"

In the book, it is stated that Wabi Sabi is away of seeing the world that is at the heart of Japanese culture.

The calendar and the Wabi-Sabi book

It finds beauty and harmony in what is simple, imperfect, natural, modest, and mysterious.
It can be a little dark, but also warm and comfortable.
It may best be understood as a feeling, rather than an idea.

Basically the book is about a cat named Wabi sabi who goes on a quest to find out what her name means. 
It's done with a series of collages and haiku (short traditional Japanese poems).
It's like a children's book, but I would say it's more like

artwork for adults, although it could work both ways, I suppose.
The thing about the wooden calendar though, is that it is so imperfect, that it just turns out to be a perfect work of art, that could only really be speaking to me personally. 
Anybody else that had have purchased it probably would think it was a pile of nonfunctional junk and demanded their money back, or a replacement.
This little work of imperfect art will sit on my bookshelf as a reminder to me of the spirit of Wabi Sabi and the mysterious universe and just what it can show me through those little glitches, that may well be worth studying a little harder, to see what they reveal on a personal level, at least.

I guess it speaks to me on many levels, really.
Aside from the Wabi Sabi aspect, it also reminds me of my old cat Sylvester and his spirit energy.
Plus, if you look closely at the cat's face, it could also double as an owls face, and it's right eye is painted a little imperfectly giving it the slight appearance of a wink (possibly from the right side of the brain?).
Also, it's made up of dots and lines, which gives it the look of a spirit energy holding the particles of matter together, to give form to the cat.
Maybe that's why Aboriginal painters use the dot style so much?
It is an apt artwork in many ways, because if there was a creature on this planet (to me anyway) that personified perfection, it would have to be some type of cat.
I have two dogs now, and don't get me wrong, I love 'em, but compared to the grace and skill of a cat, they're clowns.
Cats just have that superiority and sense of perfection about them, compared to dogs IMO.    

 So, having this little imperfect cat artwork will also remind me of Salvador Dali's famous saying;

"Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it."

Sylvester at house in Minerva Street

Jack (left) and  Spike (right)

11:11

If there's one sequence of numbers that really plagues my life it's 11:11 . 
If I ever get some urge to look at a clock, day or night, they will usually be the numbers staring right back at me.
It really bugs me that these numbers seem to be trying to tell me something, but I just don't get it.
And this has been happening for at least the last 20 (maybe, even 23 [there's another number plaguing my life];-) years of my life.
So, here's just one example, from the other day.

I work a lot of different shifts for my employer, 9.30am-5.30pm, 1.30pm-9.30pm, 9.00am-5.30pm (on weekends), and 11.30am-7.30pm ... the last shift being the shift I was working, when this last 11:11 spook took place.

When I work the 11.30am-7.30pm shift I usually try to leave home around 11 o'clock, because on average it takes me about 15 to 20 mins to get there allowing for the inevitable couple of red lights along the way.

This particular day I was running a bit late (not unusual, but I always seem to clock in just in time, even if only by literal seconds) and when I hopped into my car the digital clock on the dash was showing 11:11 as I was leaving home ... that's not the strange part, because that does happen quite a lot ... now here comes the spooky bit.
There are only two routes I usually travel to work, one is on the main road (which has too many traffic lights, for my liking), and the other is the back-roads (past the old Gum Tree site, [see post below "Comes a Time"] ), which I usually travel to avoid the traffic lights and keep on the move.

Now, I knew the local council were doing road works in the back-roads, so if I didn't want to get held up by them, I would have to chance the lights, and hope it wouldn't make me late (my employer is a real time Nazi when it comes to swiping in late, and they keep a computer record of your swipes, so they can fire your @$$ later on down the track, if they start forming pretty patterns on your record ... so there is a real incentive to swipe in on time, if I want to be able to keep paying off the vig on my mortgage to those bankster$, who lent me the money, which keeps me working in the day prison of my choice;-)

Anyway, I chose to risk the lights, over the roadworks and hoped for a fair run.
There are 10 sets *(see footnote) of lights to get through, going this way from my house, not to mention roundabouts.
This day was memorable for more than one reason, because this day I didn't get one single red light.
It was a nonstop ride through 10 sets* (see footnote) 

of green lights!?!

It was amazing to get through that maze without stopping;-)

But here is the cherry on the cake, it only took me 11 minutes to get to work that day.
It was one of the most relaxing drives I have ever had getting to work, and I had a rare 8 minutes to spare, before swiping in.
I went to put my steering lock on, and my eye caught the trip meter, which I only ever reset when filling up with petrol, so I can see what sort of distance I get out of my tank.
I was so amazed at what I saw that I had to take a photo of it, just so I could back up this amazing story.

My trip-meter after arriving at work
after an all green light trip

  

I've only just realized this now, looking at the above photo.
If you add up all the white numbers on black dials you get (from top to bottom) 1+1+1+1+1+3+3+7+5 = 23, the other number that haunts my life.
That's just doubled the spook factor for me.
I thought it was amazing enough with just the 11:11 on the trip meter, but now that I've noticed this, I'm glad I snapped that shot, because that 23 would have passed me by, unnoticed.
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Type of vehicle driven by red light runner.

Not really related to this story, but related to this car.
Last week I was nearly wiped out by a #ickhead in a black Toyota Hi-Lux, who ran a red light, which had been green for me, for at least a good four seconds.
The only thing that saved me was that the driver in front of me, in a red Falcon, suddenly stopped as we were both about to enter the intersection (didn't I call him a few choice words as I nearly ran up his back?).
I think the Falcon driver probably might have just made it through if he didn't stop, but I would have been literally mince meat, as the black Hi-Lux grill would have ran right through my driver's side door, at about 70 km/h.

As we got around the corner, I drove up next to the Falcon driver, and I mouthed a big thank you to him, but he looked quite pale, and a bit shaken, and probably took my thank you as curse words, directed his way, by some idiot, that nearly ran up his back.
I just hope he didn't, but it's a bit hard trying to think straight, when you realize that you missed the death bus by a few split seconds.

It all sounds like an Egyptian fable when you think about it.
A Red Ford Falcon (Horus) saving a little silver Hyundai Lantra (whatever that word means) from a black Toyota Hi Lux (balck light-[Set]).

I often joke to people when they ask me why I have a Grateful Dead sticker on my windshield, that it's in case I get killed in a road accident, and it will be my way of telling loved ones, this may look real bad, but I'm OK on the other side, trust me (I just hope it's never used for this purpose;-).

My Grateful Dead sticker on
the windshield of my car

But that day it was good to be part of the 'Grateful Living';-)
Although as close as it looked to being my last day on earth, I still believe when your numbers up, it's up.
So, a miss is as good as a mile (or kilometre), in my books.
But it still makes you appreciate the possibilities of your life, when something like this happens.

BTW, as I was taking the shot of this sticker, I just realized that the numbers on my number plate, which is just a standard issue plate adds up to 23?!

Part of my numberplate

Life ... it's one strange trip!!!
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*UPDATE: (April 7th, 2011) There were actually 11 sets of lights on this trip, now that I actually drove through, and physically counted them (I missed a set of pedestrian lights at a Catholic school, which I just about always get through).
Which makes things just that little bit more spooky.

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UPDATE: (April 8th, 2011) It's my dad's 81st birthday today, and coming home from work I decided to stop at an ATM and get some money out to put in the birthday card, that I was going to give him the next day when I saw him.
When I went to hop out of the car I noticed this (below):

The trip meter was reading 81, and the kilometres traveled meter below was reading 114377.

81 is how old he is today.
Plus, if you look closely, you'll see the last dial on the trip meter

(the white dial) is stuck between the 2&3.
Read vertically, the white dial could be viewed as a 23 

(my birth-date) and if you add up the bottom dial 1+1+4+3+7+7 =23.

I'm beginning to think that I'm trapped in a Jim Carrey movie;-)

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My car keys and key ring

Update: 29th April 2011: 

 I have just finished reading Mary Soliel's book 

I Can See Clearly Now and this passage in the book's first chapter really resonates with this post here for me.

It says,"On a deep level, we feel the need to break away from the patterns that have held us back.

We are becoming increasingly connected to our higher selves and are seeking spiritually conscious and authentic ways of being.

Ultimately, we are being driven to live from the inside out, rather than the outside in."

The key-chain, pictured above, I bought about 7 weeks ago, and attached it to my existing keyring, which has my "Surfing the Tao" surfboard and Cronulla NRL membership badge already on it.

I initially bought it because I liked the silver die and pale blue horseshoe.

It reminds me that "life's a gamble" and you have to take some risks, with no guarantees of a payoff, if you want to be a winner.

The flip-side of course, is that you could end up a loser ... but that's life ... there's no gain, or loss, without risk ... just a boring, safe life.

Which is fine if you like boring safe lives ... but that's not for me.

My plan is to back myself and be rewarded for backing a winner.

The other four symbols on the chain, the clover leaf, eight-ball, diamond and number 7, appealed to me on some subconscious level, but I didn't really know why, apart from the obvious symbolic luck tokens that they represent.

But as you might have noticed from the picture of my number plate (above), 8&7 are the only two numbers on the plate, and there is a diamond shape in the middle of the plate.

Also, I learned from reading in 

I Can See Clearly Now that my life number is 7 (you add up all the numbers in your birth-date to arrive at a single digit number).

 And Mary says "7 calls for endings leading to new beginnings".

Mary also says, "More and more people are catching 11:11 repeatedly on their clocks, and this phenomenon is known to reflect humanity's collective permission to change the course of the earth toward peace, instead of prophesied destruction.

Many believe it is a wakeup call, a reminder that says we're on the track to earth's new reality.

Some simply regard it as good luck and make wishes when they notice it." 

The same night that I realized all this, I was listening to this pod-cast

 Living a Synchronistic Lifestyle

with author Mary Soliel, being interviewed on a blogtalk radio show.

I still wondered about the shamrock, though, and oddly enough at the 50 min mark of this pod-cast, Mary says,"What are you thinking when you see a truck with a bunch of shamrocks on it? 

It's probably a good sign"

The Sam Lesante Show with Mary Soliel

“The Twelfth Insight”?

Abraxas Bookshop, Byron Bay.

I was down at Byron Bay today, and was just browsing through my favourite bookshop Abraxas [shameless plug] and came across a copy of James Redfield’s book The Twelfth Insight.
I picked it up and got this weird deja vu feeling, and then I thought that it only felt like deja vu because I must have read it years ago.
Then I thought, the only Redfield book I have ever read that I know of was The Celestine Prophecy, and I wasn’t all that impressed by it, apart from the fact he brought synchronicity more into mainstream consciousness .

If his book is as good as his YouTube clip (which it was not), promoting the book then I'll be a very happy reader:-) ... which I wasn't:-( 

Now this is weird, because when I was holding this book it felt like an old familiar nostalgic memory of my past, and a thought ran through my head like, "yes, that was the best book that he ever wrote.
That was way better than the The Celestine Prophecy.That was the book that really put him into the spotlight".

The only problem was I had not read another book by Redfield … and I’m reluctant to … to tell the truth.
This book memory/deja vu is really starting to bug me, because I nearly bought it (to read again, because I thought I enjoyed it last time … but I have not read it, obviously).
I just can’t believe this is a new book, because it felt so familiar to me.

My right brain is saying, "you have to get it now".
My left brain is saying, "don’t waste your money or time fool".

Decisions … decisions … decisions???

Some of my books

                                                           So little time, so many books;- ( 

Some of my purchases from Byron Bay on March 27th, 2011

P.S.  
I bought two books (Soul Survivor and Dharma Road) and one DVD (Infinity: The Ultimate Trip) to add to my already overwhelming reading/viewing list.

Interesting thing also was that that I picked up a little wooden cat block calendar, and when I set it to today's date, the two number 8's made infinity symbols, which mirrored the infinity symbol on the cover of the DVD (see photo above).

It's been one of those days filled with infinite possibilities;- )

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Update: May 1st 2011:  
Watching the You Tube clip about The Twelfth Insight, in the post above, and seeing that spiritual  little boat ramp, reminded me of this book, which I also feel the universe is pushing at me.

Taking the Leap?

And it reminds me of this little sacred (to me, anyway) spot that I like to visit (see photo below)

Ramp on Lake at Sirromet Winery

Looking out over the lake, reflecting:-)

Nature's Mirror?

What lake would be complete without a lotus or two?

... and no, not just because it happens to be on a winery;- )

Heard anything lately?- )

Communion anyone?

Update: 10/10/12

I should have updated this post ages ago.
The Abraxas Bookshop is no more:-(

The Tree

A similar looking tree to the one cut down on Binalong Street.

Binalong an Aboriginal word meaning 'under the hills, surrounded by hills, or towards a high place'.
Writing about the Gum Tree synchronicity a few posts below, and the movies I've recently seen in the post just below this one, has jogged my memory back to a movie I saw a week before my Father-in-law died last October.

That movie was a darkly prophetic movie, in more ways than I realized at the time.

That movie was shot in Queensland (my home state), not too far from where I live now.
It was a French/Australian co-production called The Tree. 

 SPOILER ALERT (there will be many from now on)            
It's about an 8 year old girl who believes her dead father's spirit is inhabiting the huge Fig Tree growing just outside the family house, and that he is watching over her and the family.

Now, I had a free double pass to see this movie, but my wife was busy that weekend, so I gave the pass to my brother, who took my mother with him to see it, and I went and paid my own admission to see it by myself, because movies like these don't have a long screening life at the Cineplex, and I really wanted to see this film on the big screen.

One thing about the film that struck me was how much the little girl in the film looked and acted like my niece (below).

My mum with my niece

When I got home I told my wife about the movie and how much the girl in it was like my sister's little girl, so we agreed we would both see it sometime in the following week ... but we never did, because like the girl's father in the film, my wife's father died of a heart-attack, from out of the blue.
No one saw it coming, just like in the film.
I don't think my wife could ever watch the film now, because it's just too close to home, in more ways than one.

The massive cyclone (Yasi)
that hit North Queensland

But that's not all.
In the film, the family house, and the tree get smashed by a massive cyclone, and three months later a massive cyclone (Yasi) would smash the state in which the movie was filmed.

Dugandan Hotel, Boonah,
during the recent Brisbane Floods

Also, parts of Boonah (where the movie was actually filmed) would be flooded in January 2011.
So, looking back now, it's easy to see just how prophetic it was.
The DVD of The Tree should be out soon, and I think it's worth another look, to see if there wasn't something else I missed ... but I'll probably have to watch it when the wife is not around.
I think it may be just too painful for her to ever watch.
It's a shame she didn't get to see it when I went.
It's amazing what difference a week, to a few months can make, to the way a film will be viewed for the rest of your life.

The Adjustment Bureau, or Limitless???

I came across a link to these posts ;

http://wellofhighstrangeness.blogspot.com/2011/03/approaching-posthuman-self.html

http://wellofhighstrangeness.blogspot.com/2011/03/minerva-current.html
from Mike Clelland's blog Hidden Experience, after seeing the bronze statue of Minerva Mike had posted on his post.

Since I once rented a house on Minerva Street, it got my attention, and I went across to read the post.

But just before reading that post I had to make up my mind about which movie I was going to see that day.

It was either The Adjustment Bureau or Limitless, as they were both on at the same time (11 o'clock).

The Adjustment Bureau is based on a short Phillip K.Dick story with a tag line of, "Do we control our destiny, or do unseen forces manipulate us?", which was the only real reason I wanted to see it, and Limitless is about a writer discovering a top-secret drug which bestows him with super human abilities.

I decided to see Limitless, because something just bugs me about 
The Adjustment Bureau trailer, and I decided Limitless was a better concept, to me, and therefore gets my movie money.

Then I kept staring a the title Limitless, and kept thinking what a strange title for a movie, and how often do I see that word around?
Not too often, I thought.

Then I read a post and saw this sentence; "It appeared to me that this light, this future self was unimaginably LIMITLESS, yet still retained its identity, so much so that it was able to communicate with every aspect of itself including itself as it existed in the past."

Balmoral Cinema, Brisbane

Now, I don't know whether it was just The Adjustment Bureau who guided me there, or some 'limitless' future self.

Either way, I was off to see Limitless, unless my plans were somehow adjusted for me;-)

The Brisbane cinema I saw Limitless at

I tried snapping a photo on my cell phone, to get a shot of the two movie posters (The Adjustment Bureau poster is on the outside of the right-hand door, and  the Limitless poster is on the inside of the left-hand door).

The first photo I took was a little fuzzy, so I thought I would snap a second picture, in case the first turned out worse than it looked, but I didn't check the second picture, because I was sure I snapped it well before the lady in the blue top walked in front of the Limitless poster.
Anyway, I'm sure you can make out the Limitless poster in the first one, surely?

Although, I'm sure skeptics will say it's just the planet Venus;-)

P.S.  
"Limitless" is one of the best movies I have seen for quite sometime.
I highly recommend it.

Especially if you like movies like The Matrix (look out for the amusing nod to The Matrix in the film), but I still want to catch up with The Adjustment Bureau, just to see if I made the right choice;- )

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BTW,

I found this miniature bird figure at the doll shop, a few doors up from the cinema.

I usually pop in and buy a few miniatures for my desk and bookcase, if they are open, when I come out of a movie.
This bird looks similar to the Sacred Kingfisher in my posts below.

Bird (Sacred Kingfisher?) statue I bought near the cinema

The Sacred Kingfisher that flew into my window

I said to the shopkeeper that I didn't remember seeing these last time I was in (which was before the bird hit my window) and she said, "no you wouldn't have, they have only just come in".

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Update: April 7th, 2011.

I finally saw The Adjustment Bureau yesterday, and I have to say that I'm glad that I saw Limitless first (it's the better movie in my book).
I think it was just meant to be that way, anyway, or something like this (below) might have happened to me when I was ringing for session times;-)

A scene from the movie The Adjustment Bureau?