The Secret Number
Many years ago I was fortunate to meet an inspiring teacher. She was instrumental in my life for about three years. But in those three years, the most important thing she taught me was about life and valuing the time we’ve been given on earth. She put it all into perspective with an unforgettable lesson called The Secret Number.
She told me each person had been specifically chosen to come to planet earth during the times of great change. In the selection process we were given a mission to accomplish while here. She said the mission could be discovered in different ways. One could turn to a psychic reader who might give insights to an individual’s life purpose. Or a course of study might stir the fires of past-life skills needed now. Her advice was to “do the work yourself” and seek answers within through meditation, dreams or journaling.
She said the revelation of the mission was dependent on how we spent our time. Then she shared the key to fulfilling the mission. She said each of us had also been given a secret number when we departed the spirit world. But, we would never know what it was. The number held a direct impact on our destiny and our mission. With great solemnity she told me the secret was the number of years we got to live on the earth.
No one knew how many years they’d been given, nor for that matter what number anyone else had been given. All we knew was that we had a finite number of years, so we should use them wisely and with purpose. With condescension, I said, “We have a mission but don’t know what it is. And, we have to fulfill it, but don’t know how long we have. How do we know what to do?”
I was sure she’d heard the question, or similar ones, for the entire time she’d been teaching and in her wisdom probably had a prepared response. But the one she gave me was unexpected and it’s the one that I remember 35 years later. She began by asking a series of questions: “At the beginning of each day do you set an intention to be better than the day before? How do you spend your time and in what pursuits? Do you respond with kindness and compassion to others? What talents or skills do you generously share with others? Are you frivolous or thoughtful with the hours of each day? Do you treasure each moment that you’ve been gifted to be here? And, at the end of each day do you express gratitude to Spirit?”
She went to the small altar in her teaching room and retrieved a jar filled with marbles. Though I’d been in the room every week for three years I’d never noticed the jar before. She said each marble in the jar represented a year left in her life. When she was younger, the jar was practically full. But now, well into the latter part of her seventh decade, there were only about 15 marbles left in the jar. She turned the jar over and the marbles rolled into her hands. She was holding 15 marbles representing the 15 years left in her life-span. The visual was shocking.
When she was a young girl in South America her grandmother taught her the magic and medicine of the earth and how to relate to all species. Her grandmother also taught her about the finite number of years given to each person on earth. To help her remember the teachings, her mission and her lineage, the grandmother placed 85 stones in a pouch. She said each stone represented her grand-daughter’s life expectancy. On each birthday she was to take a stone out of the pouch and deeply reflect on the year just past. What had she done with the year? How did she spend her time? Was it a year making the world a better place? Or was it squandered? She said at first the bag appeared filled with endless stones. But over time, as the stones began to diminish she realized the value of time and how it was being spent.
Using her grandmother’s lesson of the bag of stones, my teacher taught her students to take stock of their lives. At whatever age they were in their life, she told them to make an assumption of how many more years they had left on earth. My class was to assume we would live to age 90. We were to subtract our current age from 90 and place that number of marbles in a glass jar. Each year on our birthday we were to remove a marble. Then, in a state of honest reflection, we were to enter into our journal the answers to the questions she’d asked me above.
The questions always cause sober introspection. But the visual of the glass jar of marbles, diminishing with each passing year, is much more indelible. My teacher is gone now, but the lesson of the jar of marbles remains. Especially when my own jar only has 25 marbles left. I use the time wisely and remember her teaching!
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Jo Mooy
For more information go to www.starsoundings.com or contact jomooy@gmail.com