What Are You Expecting to Find?

I had an incredible’Spell-caster’ experience at Costco today. Standing in line behind a man and his son when I realized I wanted to quickly go back and look through the snack aisle. So I asked him if he would mind watching my cart and pulling it forward if the line moved because I didn’t want to leave a big space.

He laughed and said, “Oh, don’t worry. You’ve probably got half an hour.”

And I immediately said, “Oh, don’t say things like that!”

I ran off, grabbed what I wanted and came back a couple of minutes later.

The line hadn’t moved.

Not even a little.

As I started putting things into my cart, the man noticed all the packages of nori - those little roasted seaweed snacks.

He looked at me and said, “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“What are you going to do with all that nori?”

I told him, “I leave it around for my little one to find so she eats it as a snack.”

He looked at me rather peculiarly and said, “You leave it in little piles around the house for her? How old is she?”

I burst out laughing.

“No! She’s ten. I mean I send it in her lunches and leave it around where she can grab it for snacks.”

By now we’re chatting and laughing and he looks at the line again and says something like, “See? I told you. This really is going to take half an hour. I always pick the worst line. Every time. Somehow I always end up in the slowest one.”

And again I said, “Watch what you’re saying.”

Because I usually have incredible luck.

So I told him, “I’m not quite sure what I’m doing standing in this terrible line behind you then.”

We laughed.

And almost immediately something happened.

A Costco employee appeared and opened another checkout. Except they didn’t open it for everybody.

They took his cart and my cart and moved the two of us over to lane 11. Then they put the LANE CLOSED sign behind us.

That was it.

They had essentially just opened a private little checkout lane for our two carts.

I looked at him.

He looked at me.

And I said, “Did that seriously just happen right after I told you I have incredible luck?”

He looked almost bewildered.

“Yeah…” He paid for his groceries, looked back at me with this expression of complete disbelief and said nothing.

But the story wasn’t finished.

While all of this was happening, another man appeared carrying just one thing. I think it was some kind of television wall mount.

He noticed our little private lane, quietly slipped over and asked, “Can I just squeeze in here with this one thing?”

The worker let him in. And standing there watching him, I realized how perfect the whole experience was.

There were three people standing in the same Costco checkout area with three completely different relationships with luck.

One man was basically saying: “I always have terrible luck.”

I was saying: “I have incredible luck.”

And then this third guy comes along and essentially says: “I’ll make my own luck.”

Same Costco. Same checkout area. Same circumstances.

Three completely different orientations toward what was possible.

And then later I looked at my phone.

4:44

And the temperature was:

22°

That stopped me.

Because my Life Path number is 22/4.

The 22/4 Lesson

In numerology, 22 is traditionally known as the Master Builder.

It’s the symbolism of being able to see possibility and then actually bring that possibility into physical form.

And 22 reduces to 4: 2 + 2 = 4

Four is foundation, structure, order, stability - building something tangible.

And there it was on my phone:

22° and 4:44 For someone with a 22/4 Life Path, that’s quite the mirror.

But what really interested me was that the experience itself seemed to contain the lesson.

The first man had already created a story about himself: “I always choose the worst line.”

And everywhere he looked, he could find evidence to support it.

The line wasn’t moving.

Of course it wasn’t.

He always chooses the bad line.

My story was different: “I usually have incredible luck.”

Now, that doesn’t mean my words magically caused someone at Costco to open another checkout lane.

But what we believe absolutely influences what we notice, what we expect, how we respond and what possibilities we’re prepared to recognize.

And then there was the third man.

He didn’t announce whether he had good luck or bad luck.

He simply saw an opening.

And he moved.

I actually think that might be the most important part of the whole story.

Because there’s a difference between believing in possibility and participating in possibility.

Faith can say: Something can open.

Awareness recognizes the opening.

Action walks through it.

And that is where the symbolism of 22/4 becomes especially meaningful to me.

The visionary can see what might exist.

But the builder brings it into form.

So maybe the deeper question is:

What are you expecting to find?

Are you continually telling yourself that you always get the bad line?

Are you open to believing that something unexpected might actually work in your favour?

And when an opening does appear, are you willing to move?

Because maybe what we call “luck” is sometimes a meeting place between expectation, awareness and action.

And then there was one more little numerical layer.

4 + 4 + 4 = 12

1 + 2 = 3

Three is traditionally associated with communication, expression and storytelling.

So there I was looking at 22 and 444 and immediately thinking:

I need to tell this story.

And even the 449 unread messages sitting there on my phone reduce to:

4 + 4 + 9 = 17

1 + 7 = 8

And turn an 8 sideways:

∞

A continuing cycle.

See. Believe. Notice. Move. Experience. Learn.

And begin again.

I don’t need to decide that the universe arranged a Costco checkout lane or deliberately put those numbers on my phone for me to appreciate the synchronicity.

Sometimes an experience simply becomes a mirror.

And this one reminded me of something I already know.

Don’t just imagine the life you want.

Pay attention to the openings that appear in front of you.

Because the 22 can hold the vision.

The 4 builds it.

And when the door opens - move.

---

About the Author - Lady Melissa

Lady Melissa is a teacher, guide and builder of living systems whose work explores the relationship between wellbeing, awareness, personal responsibility and the way we move through everyday life.

Through Elev888, she invites people back to the foundations - beginning within, becoming attentive to the body and its natural rhythms, creating supportive daily practices, and allowing what we learn to extend outward into how we live and serve.

Her teachings are grounded in a simple understanding: lasting change is rarely created through one dramatic intervention. It is built through the small choices we make, the patterns we begin to notice and the willingness to participate differently in our own lives.

Lady Melissa hosts intimate wellbeing calls for those who feel drawn to explore these principles more deeply through conversation, practical experience and community.

If something you have read here feels familiar - perhaps less like learning something new and more like remembering something you already knew - you are warmly invited to apply to join our wellbeing calls.

[APPLY TO JOIN THE WELLBEING CALLS]