A Date with Eights: Olympic Reflections
8-8-08
Today at 8:08 p.m., 8/8/08, the Beijing Olympic Games officially begin. The Chinese did not randomly select this time and date. The number 8 is considered a very lucky number to the Chinese, since the Chinese word for eight is “ba,” which rhymes with “fa,” the Chinese word for prosperity.
Another date with lots of eights has significance for me. On 8/8/1988, I attended an International Women’s Peace Conference in Dallas, Texas, which was life-altering for me in many ways.
I discovered that there was a world-wide revolution going on that had nothing to do with creating change through war, violence for force. Instead, women from every corner of the globe were part of a network of sorts, joined only by a common intention to create peace, wholeness and well-being. These women were quietly and unobtrusively going about the business of making the world a better place for themselves and their loved ones.
I met some incredible women. Proud and elegant African women dressed in colorful turbans and robes impressed me with their inner calm and feminine strength. Dynamic North American and European women, sure of their new visions and confidently making them a reality. Women were revolutionizing education by starting their own unique schools, teaching such things as yoga, dance, miming, acting, crafts and social and relationship skills.
They were also revolutionizing their lifestyles by exploring and teaching organic farming, lost arts and crafts, alternative political action. They were boldly proposing new ways to create healthy families, healthy relationships, healthy workplaces and business.
The expanded world view I left the conference with affected my life from then on. It led to a totally different direction that involved personal growth, spirituality and the dropping of old ideas about how life should be lived. This expansion of consciousness was paired with seeming negative changes as well. I left Texas for California at the beginning of a nationwide recession, and divorced my first husband.
I see parallels happening in my world now that correspond to occurrences in 1988. As then, the excitement of this date of eights is mirrored by negatives–the downturn in the U.S. economy, housing market and financial institutions, outsourcing and analogous loss of U.S. jobs, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the loss of American prestige and respect throughout the world.
Yet through the extremes of highs and lows, now as then I am sure life will lead to even greater awareness and positive changes.
So today, on another date full of eights, I celebrate the shifts I made in my life as a result of that other date, and look forward to seeing how this propitious date affects the lives of the Chinese and the Olympic Games and me and the rest of the world.
Eights continued to influence me as I explored my inner life. I studied the eight limbs of spiritual growth as outlined by the Indian sage Patanjali, who is credited with creating the origins of all systems of yoga. I faithfully practiced 108 different spiritual attitudes or vibrations of creation.
Like the Catholic rosary that contains 108 beads to assist in prayer and contemplation, the Indian mala contains 108 beads that represent 108 saints, with one more bead for the Unknown and Unknowable One, or for God.
I offer a prayer today, on this day of eights, that the world will move ahead in the spirit of peace and friendship that the Olympic games has traditionally symbolized. Each of us can use this challenging time of highs and lows to revolutionize our own lives, inside and out. We can live peace, be peace, share peace. And in that simple practice, revolution happens and war and hate can cease to exist. Change can come, with silence and joy.
This post is the 108th post on our blog!
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