Monday Morning Musing: Fifty Days of Gratitude, Days 21-23

Do you have a lucky number? Mind is three. Spiritually, three is traditionally a number of completeness. In Christianity it represents the Triune God. For Hindus, three represents the Trimurti. Resurrection happened on the third day.

And one of my mentors, Jane Jenkins of blessed memory, used to say (and you must imagine this with a strong midwestern accent) “Julie, give it three days” whenever I was pondering or discerning or mulling over something. “The Holy Spirit can do a lot in three days” she would conclude. Those of us who learned from Jane call it her Three Day Rule. It has saved my neck many times.

My grand girl just turned three and on Saturday many of us who love her went with her and her “baby” (I just love that she calls her brother her baby) and her parents to the zoo. Most

My three 'kids' are my whole heart

of her grandparents were there. Her Auntie Tay and Uncle Greg too. There were also three of her friends along for the party. Y’all. These were some of the most well behaved three year olds I’ve ever been around. Heck, they were some of the most well behaved people I’ve been around lately period. They shared well, they enthusiastically participated in the whole day, and they enjoyed their snacks. It was so much fun. Today the birthday girl and I discussed the day, reviewing who was there and what we did. Her favorite animal, she said, was the puffin. Yes, technically a bird, but she’s three so…

Here’s another interesting thing about the number three. Lately, I’ve been waking up in the middle of the night, at exactly 3:33 am. Luckily, I go back to sleep fairly quickly, but it’s such an interesting occurrence. Encyclopedia Google says that it is a sign from the universe. Cool.

Some years ago, my friend Amy told me that she understood time to be something other than linear. Of course, this is a commonly held understanding, especially for those who practice Kairos rather than Chronos. Amy was a Kairos sort of person. And we’d talk about how time was circular and had qualities of a vortex and could exist on multiple planes at once. And I remember well how she said that time is really the past/present/future all at once. That feels to me as close as we might get to understanding divine time in this lifetime on this plane. But past/present/future also represent a perfect three. Amy died in January of 2007, after meeting my Bruce and offering me her blessing on our love together. She also had an affinity for the number three, likely for many of the same reasons I do and certainly because she also valued Jane’s Three Day Rule.

For the past/present/future that is the time we are gifted; for the signs and wonders that happen in threes and for the wisdom to know when to ponder something for a good three days, I am grateful.