8:08

I wake on Dec. 25, and the first thing I see is "8:08". Though the digits are not identical triplets, they are fraternal, and they stick to my mind.

I woke up un-hungry and uninspired, but anxious nonetheless. I had been explaining my position on the team of 18 and the adventure that awaits me some 4+ months into the future to my family members at a gathering the night before. I did not (and do not) yet know all of the details, and I still had (and still have) the slightest twinge of anxiety about whether everything will pan out smoothly. And those conversations were still in my mind....

...as were previous conversations from that day, this week, and these past months. And as were the people who have teetered into and out of my world at various intervals and integers of time and space--my mind focused on a specific 3: 3 lovely ladies who had been significant players in my history, and with whom I had reconnected in 2010.

And I think of the 1 I lost this year: Siddi. Three months and 1 day ago, he left. His 1 bed, the 1 recliner, and the 2 chairs that were in his room have now been replaced by 2 couches. I only know because I stole a peripheral glance when I passed the room last night. I didn't enter. I couldn't.

God tells us we are told what we need to know and given what we need to have, and we don't need to know and have everything. People, places, periods of time are all as they are meant to be when they are meant to be.

And now, it's 11:11, and I think about the new connections and adventures that have already started to shape and will, insha'Allah, come to full fruition in 2011.

And all of it reminds me that life is a funny little game of numbers and waiting, wallah.