I love the number 9. This isn’t your average human/“favorite number” relationship. This is a love affair. The number 9 has always seemed to follow me in life in series of good fortune and comfort.

Starting at the beginning—I was born October 9^th, so nothing quite original there but a convenient place to start with a favorite number. As I read more about numerology, the more I loved my number 9. In numerology each person has what you call a “life path number” and it is figured out through a mathematical equation based on your birthday. (I fully understand that I sound like the crazed horoscope type… but what can you do). Mine happens to be the number 9. I share a birthday with John Lennon but we do not have the same life path number because of the different year he was born (which he relayed in an interview and talked about his love for the number 9 as well). The number 9 has many mysteries both mathematical and symbolic. It’s the magic number. Have you become addicted to the game Sudoku at any point in your life? It’s a complex number.

On my 9^th birthday my Grandma Davis gave me a birthday card with 9 crisp dollars inside the envelope. She explained to me how important this birthday was from all other birthdays - it was my Golden Birthday: the day your age and day of birth dance cohesively in perfect compatibility. Another memory burns crystal clear in mind’s eye. I was in the basement of my home in Layton, Utah in my Dad’s unfinished office. I was doing my math homework and my Dad taught me the multiplication of 9’s using only my fingers. “Hold out your ten fingers and put down the finger you want to multiply by 9. Line up the fingers on your left with your right and you have your answer!” It was magic.

As my life has moved forward a pattern has begun to form in my day to day routine. I see the time 10:09 am/pm almost every single day. It became so amusing to me that I think my internal clock knows that I check the time at 10:09 and I proceed to do so. The satisfaction of checking the time at 10:09 has infected my husband and he can’t get away from it. Devan and I were walking through Bed, Bath, and Beyond when we were engaged last year and we saw an entire wall of clocks both digital and traditional at exactly 10:09—this time was printed on the outer boxes as advertisements. I immediately googled the time 10:09 and found that it was the “official time” of Timex watches and clocks. In fact, most clock companies use 10:09 for advertisement because of its equal looking balance on the traditional clock. I somehow took this as a sign to apply for a job at Timex in Connecticut. I told them I was a 10:09 enthusiast on my application! I never heard from them… of course—because I sounded like an insane person.

 

I guess my point is—we humans love to attach ourselves and our personalities to “favorites” be it food, movies, music, colors, and numbers. I’ve always been torn between SO many favorite foods and music and movies and books but never numbers. I feel like I am a true number 9 and I wear the number on my neck—it makes me feel authentic, like maybe I know myself a little better than I sometimes question.