The Numbers Sometimes Are Right
Although I’m not particularly inclined to believe in metaphysical sciences such as numerology, astrology, zodiac signs and so on, I must admit that I am minimally curious on bad days and highly fascinated by these kinds of things on good days. I’ve developed a “hard-science” outlook on looking at life due my professional training and work as an electrical engineer for over a decade. So math, statistics, probability, physics run naturally deep inside my mind and heart. Even though one may think that I may still be in the early stages of uncovering these topics and will therefore experientially learn more and more about them and as a I better understand them, I’ll grow confident that these things actually make sense. But for the time being these are still foreign concepts concepts for me to grasp.
Nevertheless, I’m reading this book on Numerology called “Secrets of the inner self” and even though most of the stuff I have read has not been able to kick me an iota out of the box I’m in, one thing caught my attention fairly strongly. Although I still think it’s a mere coincidence, I like to give this thing the benefit of the doubt in order to keep my mind open, my creative juices flowing and entertained by a good story of how others see and interpret the world around them. I’m sure, a 200-page book explaining the meanings of numbers in peoples lives statistically will certainly present a few valid points for the scepticals like me.
From what I gather, numerology is about understanding hidden meanings on the dates in which we’re born and other things of the kind. My date of birth is 02/03/1988, and having 2 8s on my birthdate the book states: “These people will react to materialistic environmental circumstances by becoming unsettled. This is customarily expressed in their wish to travel, especially when young. If this desire is frustrated, it can lead to a feeling of confinement and uncertainty which could take years to dissipate. Travel can become their important lesson book and should be encouraged whenever possible because it will help them to gain equilibrium and eventually choose a life of peace.”
Well, I have always loved going away, even if it’s just for the day. I rarely get homesick because I naturally feel home in most places. I love driving, I love flying and I love the sea. After graduating from college, I landed a job at a Norwegian company and my first assignment was to hop on a plane, head on over to Norway for a 5 week immersive training. I had been hired to be the only technical specialist on what the company did in South & North America. Although I hardly spoke English and I spoke absolutely no Norwegian, I managed to get the most out of the training and my time in Norway. I loved every single minute of that trip. I was completely by myself, except in the rare occasions where someone from the company wanted to hang out with me after hours. I don’t blame them, communicating with me was quite a challenge due to the language barrier. I traveled throughout Norway. The company was based in Trondhein, and I had the privilege to travel to Bergen, Stavanger, Alesund and Floro. Also, I got to spend a bit of time in Amsterdam and Paris.
OMG, I was in heaven. The work challenges I was experiencing to learn a whole lot of things in a foreign language didn’t distracted me from enjoying every tiny bit of that 5-week trip. If something, the experience of travelling helped me, enhanced my ability to concentrate on and to learn about what I was there for. Once I went back to Brazil, I started travelling to the US regularly and inside Brazil literally every week. Times where I visited three different states inside a week was not uncommon at all. Needless to say that I loved it. After a few years however, I got somewhat sick of travelling and wanted to settle down. I really wanted to go to live in Norway because I could potentially continue to do the job I was doing in Brazil, but in Norway instead. But this opportunity never came about. Then I was thinking about going somewhere in California, but I ended up deciding to come to Australia instead.
I came to Australia in 2014 and it was a billion times better than I could’ve ever imagined. My wife and I got our permanent residency a few years later and in 2019 we became Australian citizens. During such time, we ALWAYS travelled. When we lived in Byron Bay, we used to visit Brisbane regularly. When we moved to Brisbane, we used to get away to Byron Bay and the Sunshine Coast. When we went to the countryside, we would come to Brisbane once every few weeks, once year to Brazil and also once a year to some other place such as Bali, far north Queensland or some place else. We never stopped travelling. And now reading this book I can begin to understand why the high demands of my work was never enough to throw me off my balance. And it was because I was often travelling which was enough to reset, refresh and recharge.
Over the past few years, however, we had COVID. And we haven’t been able to travel since 2019. During Covid, Thali and I started a food business. We open an old-fashioned brick and mortar food shop. And due to the lack planning, we haven’t been able to get away on weekends, let alone overseas for a while. We didn’t plan to have this business, things just unfolded the way they did and this is what we built. This is what we created. Although it has been an experience of a lifetime, the fact that we are unable to go see our families in Brazil as often as we want, summed with the fact that we can’t even get away anywhere for a week or so, have made us reassess, rethink and decide that we need to let go of the stuff that’s preventing us from travelling and go travelling.
We need a reset our lifestyle, we must freshen up our ideas and recharge our hearts. And so we understood that our store was by far the predominant factor holding us. We therefore decided to sell it. Oh man and you’ve got no idea how many people messaged us about it when we announced to the world what we’re doing. Some people were genuinely excited for us to go on travels and see our families and enjoy such beautiful world that only exists right here in the entire universe. But most people saw it as we were giving up on our business, on our community, on our project. The matter of the fact is, we are not giving up on anything because our business will continue on very likely in a different format. Our community will continue engaging with a more excited, vibrant and overall better version of ourselves. And ultimately, we’re not giving up on our project to make the world a better place. Perhaps we are migrating from providing people what to eat to start teaching them how to eat healthy and consciously wherever we are. Don’t they say “Give man a fish and he’ll be fed for a day. Teach him to fish and he’ll feed himself till the end of times”? Our life purpose is to make the world better because we’re here. We are here to open-mindedly participate in creating such world.
To wrap this up, we don’t know what the future holds nor do we want to just yet. All we want now is to close this utmost successful chapter of our lives, have some time off, endeavour in new projects that are meaningful to us and experience the uncertainty and novelty of life. After all, you and me can meticulously plan whatever we want, but the truth is if we’re not open to how what we planned may happen we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment. We must know where we’re going, but the way to get there is impossible to control. We can influence it at best, but yet, trying to do that stiffens the beauty of life. Being flexible to adjust and adapt is the best way to set up a compelling and fulfilling future. And the matter of the fact is, if we are rigid on our ideas we’re stuck with them, we end up locking ourselves in to something and therefore anything that doesn’t go according to plan is not good, is not worthy of living. And that’s not the way I choose to create my life. I much rather be open and enjoy whatever comes my way and experience freedom. At the end of the day, what you’re seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and feeling has absolutely nothing to do with you. It’s taken 13.8 billion years of things happening exactly the way they did so you could see, hear, taste, smell and feel what you’re experiencing right now. So you don’t get to control events, all the universe is asking of you and me is that we use our bodies and minds to participate in the marvellous unfold of life in our planet. If you decide to participate in it by judging whether what’s happening in front of you is good, bad, right or wrong that’s on your choice. Not an inherently property of the objective reality.
Cheers!
