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09.09.09

Posted September 8th, 2009 by Linda Hollier

This date will not occur for another thousand years and so for me, today is a special day.

What follows is an attempt to paint a sketch of where one individual finds herself on this date in history in the four quadrants that make up the world of the good, the true and the beautiful.

I awoke this morning to the sound of a muezzin’s voice floating across the city, a reminder that I was away from home and in Dubai, a city whose recent fast-paced development has seen it grow from a small community alongside a creek to a sprawling metropolis of skyscrapers with record-breaking achievements.

It is Ramadan at the moment and there is a spiritual feel across the city.  Arabian hospitality and humanity abounds.

09.09.09 is a special day in Dubai’s history.  It sees the opening of the Dubai metro which has taken 49 months, 30,000 workers and Dh28 billion to achieve.  It will be the world’s longest automated driverless rail system and this new system in the lower right quadrant will no doubt have far-reaching effects on the lives of all who live here.

Dubai is where I find myself in the gross realm today.  In my own upper left quadrant I have my personal joys and pains, but at the same time I experience the joys and pains of those around me.  I open myself to new perspectives and seek to broaden my horizons. 

In the realm of the subtle I feel myself energetically connected to all of you.  As I think about the metro, I think too of my late father whose love for trains and railways finds itself somehow continued within me.

In the causal realm I am none of us, but beyond that I am somehow all of us.

The marketplace is in many ways an apt term to be using in Dubai, a city whose main focus is trade.

Walking around in a shopping mall yesterday, I was very conscious of the global village concept.  There was nothing that was not available to the consumer.  It was like being in all the cities of the world at the same time.  Everything had been included. 

Suddenly the feeling arose of being almost cultureless – a perturbing thought in the instant, but one that was immediately alleviated when I heard a call to prayer over the loudspeakers and saw all the adverts for Ramadan around me.  The culture of the city I was in was still there.  The mall had both transcended and included the culture it found itself in.  

09.09.09.  I am reminded too of being told in Beijing that the number 9 is a special number.  It is the highest single-digit number in the decimal system and in China is associated with royalty.  It is also considered to be a good number because it sounds the same as the Chinese word for “long-lasting”.

In certain faiths, the number 9 symbolizes completeness and is considered to be a complete, perfected and divine number.

09.09.09.  As Dubai’s first Metro train rolls out of the station today, another page of history will be turned.

I am one passenger on the train of life.  Today is one station along the way.  Today is my birthday.  I feel privileged to be on this train.

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Happy Birthday!

Posted September 9th, 2009 by Christophe Witz

Hi Linda,

it's good to see that you are still active here in Integral Onlineland. And you still travel the world! Dubai, eh. Wow you are making your way around the planet.

Have a nice day in Dubai and celebrate!

Greetings from Bavaria:

Christophe

--

>Five Star General of the Seven Armies, Archon of Atlantis<

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beautiful rendering

Posted September 9th, 2009 by Ambo Suno

Happy Birthday, Linda!

It is good for us to hear of you in Dubai, in joy and pain, which is personal and known to be collective, while being exposed to this concentrated material technological success of mall and most modern train - while you also can receive the ancient sounds, smells and feels that inhabit the ancient heat, the ubiquitous earth-dust, the spacious air and landscape, beyond the hardened vision-blocking tents of man.

For the last week I have been wondering about this upcoming numerical rarity, with mild goofy anticipation.

Your beautiful story-telling makes the day stand out.

I have wondered what it is about the aesthetically pleasing symmetries that surprise and the unusual balances in nature and in man's world-creating, world-abs-tracting ways that give us awe and smiles. I think of the fortunate young child's unspoken sense of synchrony within a seamless world. I think of her waking to the sunlit icicle beyond the window.

You woke to 9-9-9 before we who are in the US did. Have a fine remainder. May we feel the awe of future days on trains, buses, and with bare or thinly clad feel upon the solid bumpy earth. Thanks.

ambo

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Happy Birthday

Posted September 8th, 2009 by Carl Jacobson

Happy Birthday Linda--Hope your day was as auspicious as your post

Despite all its shining, the sun has never said to the earth 'you owe me'

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happy birthday

Posted September 9th, 2009 by Anne Tyler Lord

--Linda,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  I have been thinking about you, and, today I will send you great birthday vibes!

I am constantly noticing number patterns in my life and in the world, so I love to play numbers with you today.  You are very lucky to have such an auspicious birthday.  I had a birthday similar to yours a couple years back on 07.07.07

And, thanks for the info on the number 11 in another comment of yours.  My children were born on 2.11.01.  The  number 11 is their birthday, in the second month, and they are twins.

Earlier this year, the day after my birthday, I watched as it became: 12:34:56 on 07.08.09.

That is a very beautiful story in your post!  Thinking of trains took me back in time, also.  It reminded my of stories my dad told me about his late childhood & teen years - in the late 1920's - 1930's.  My dad and his friends would hitchhike and jump onto the trains and ride from town to town - very dangerous back in that day, between the Hobos and Bootleggers.  My! trains, and culture, have come so far in a couple lifetimes.

 Have a wonderful day and know that I am sending you special wishes for your birthday! 

 Anne Tyler Lord
Storytelling from the space of Integral Consciousness
Integral Poetry, Prose

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9/9/09

Posted September 9th, 2009 by Scott Marshall

Happy Birthday!  When I think of trains I think of the time in US history when we laid down track all the way out west.  Transcontinental railroad.  Manifest Destiny.  Lewis and Clark.

How about a transpersonal railroad?  Aren't we laying down track right now?  

~Scott

 

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Happy Birthday

Posted September 10th, 2009 by Carolyn Winter

Linda - happy birthday to you (one day late).  Have been enjoying your tweets and thoughtful posts and love how you celebrated your day.  So glad to know you in this orbit!

Warm wishes

Carolyn Winter

--

"All that matters is what we do for each other" - Lewis Carroll

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Happy late, but here's a short sad tale

Posted September 11th, 2009 by David Yoakum

...of Dubai's red/amber leaders creating a slave state of migrant workers tricked into coming to the land of the huge buildings and insanely sparkly malls :(

 

http://www.vbs.tv/watch/vbs-news/the-slaves-of-dubai

 

And I recommend a lot of vbs.tv's stuff.  It's taken from a mostly orange/sometimes green perspective but is great nonetheless.  Check out "Asses of the Carribean" on their guide to sex!  Apparently on the northern coast of Columbia it's completely natural and normal for men to screw donkeys starting at puberty!  Oh the price one has to pay to be raised in a fundamental Catholic culture...