Houston, we have a winner!!!!

“We know that attention acts as a lightning rod. Merely by concentrating on something one causes endless analogies to collect around it, an experience that we call coincidence, serendipity.” –Julio Cortazar

It’s a good thing I love to write, because I could never be a judge or a ref or anything that requires judiciousness. The snag I ran into when trying to decide a winner of my 2-2-2 competition is I love every one of the stories. I got comments on the blog, comments on Facebook, countless emails and I want every single person to win. That’s how I believe the world is meant to be.

But for the sake of not argument, but celebration, I have chosen a wonderful story by a wonderful new friend in Punjab, India. His name is Gaurav, he runs a grocery, has two adorable sons and he’s a whiz at teaching people to remember things.

We’ve become pen pals, discovered we have much in common and well, his email saying “I just know I’m going to win” was a clincher. I also loved his initiative in choosing a different number (more about that in a minute). His number was 4, chosen because one of his sons is 4, the other is 4 months. His wedding anniversary is on the 4th, he was engaged for four months and the year he was born ends in a 4. So he made the intention to see fours and (no surprise here) he saw them everywhere.

Because he’d already read E-Squared, he chose my book, Jumpstart your Metabolism, which is winging it’s way to India (how exciting is that!) as we speak.

I also want to share two other “amazing coincidences.” Hope you noticed the quotation marks which mean “ha-ha, get it!” or as Albert Einstein said, “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”

The first was on an early morning walk with my Bassador, Izzy. She’s a mutt, part basset hound, part black lab and, yes, she’s kinda funny looking. I decided I was overdue in watching the sun rise. I see sunsets regularly. But it’s a rare day in Timbuktu when I see the debut of its opposite. But I was up early and hey, perfect opportunity. I live on the edge of town so it wasn’t too far a walk to find a giant corn field (I can hear the Kansas jokes already) over which I watched the sun rise gloriously above the horizon in a stunning pink and purple sky.

One of the clouds (and I hesitate to share this story because I’ve already been appointed Mayor of Crazy Town) or perhaps it was several clouds positioned together was shaped in a big, heavenly “2.”

The other “coincidence” dropped into my inbox last night from the gorgeous Simran Singh. She wasn’t entering the competition. Not sure, she even knows I exist.

But I’m a fan of her 11:11 Magazine and she sent to her list this Ted Talk that I’ve added here. It’s 17 minutes, but I think you’ll find it worth watching. Enjoy!!

Pam Grout is the author of 16 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality.