“The universe that constantly spins out new galaxies wants to shine through you, to speak through you, to expand through you.”—A tweet I tweeted out this morning
Elizabeth Gilbert tells a funny story in her book, Big Magic. She was working as a cook on a ranch in Wyoming. She was drinking beer one night with a cowboy named, Hank, who told her about the instructional tape he had just bought to learn how to imitate an elk’s mating call.
I spent an autumn near Rocky Mountain National Park one year, and I can attest that Gilbert’s description of a bull elk calling for a mate is extremely accurate—an eardrum-shredding Styrofoam-against-Styrofoam screech.
So while we women are listening to tapes with yoga mudras, these Wyoming hunters are mastering their ability to imitate rutting elks.
Gilbert, who thought this was the funniest thing she’d ever heard, eventually convinced Hank to go get his Larry D. Jones mating call tape. And possibly because of the beer, they hatched the crazy scheme of taking the boom box out into the woods. Giddy and laughing and, as she says, not in tune with nature in the least, they stumbled through the woods with the artificial bull elk’s mating call twanging at full blast.
Suddenly, there’s a crashing of branches and a 700-pound bull elk exploding towards them. He snorted and pawed as he prepared for war against this rival bull elk. Luckily, Hank had the good sense to throw the boom box as far away as possible.
I tell you this story, partly because I think it’s hilarious, but mostly because it reminds me that if I can get my boom box on the right frequency, the universe is going to show up, snorting and pawing and ready to move in my life. It’s out there. It’s ready to go. It’s digging up the earth with its paws. I just need to get on the frequency that calls it in.
Have the best weekend of your life, my friends!!
Pam Grout is the author of 18 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the recently released, Thank and Grow Rich: a 30-day Experiment in Shameless Gratitude and Unabashed Joy.
28 Responses
Awesome analogy! Gave me goosebumps and a good chuckle. I am barely awake so please excuse any grammer faux paus lol.
Thanks for the morning laugh. My boom box is on full blast! Universe, you can hear me and I know you will let me know you heard me. Happy Friday! Happy Healthy Weekend.
Happy Friday! I can feel your boom box energy all the way over here! It is wonderful. 🙂
Ha ha. What a great way to start the morning! I absolutely loved that story when Elizabeth Gilbert told it in her book. But your spin on it makes me love it even more!!!
“If I can get my boom box on the right frequency, the universe is going to show up, snorting and pawing and ready to move in my life.”
I love this metaphor as well because it reminds us that we not only set the frequency to where we want it, but we can put on our boots, go out in the woods, and start looking for those elk!
What do I want to broadcast to the Universe today? And what is way I can actually get into action around that?
Pam, thanks again for your unique, quirky, one-of-a-kind take on things. You are a gift!
Loved the story in “Big Magic” and I can attest to the elk call, as I live in Wyoming. The first time i heard the call was when we were on a full moon rafting trip on the Snake River with the Tetons as a back drop. Love your books and Elizabeth Gilbert’s book. When I followed her advise and stopped agonizing over money for my art, I starting selling more and more art! Life is Perfect!
Absolutely and when we let go of what we thought the answer had to be, a new better, amazing answer shows up!!!
I have been thanking the Universe for almost every little thing, and finally including I could not see the bigger picture:
Thankfully because I let go and let the Universe have its way with me, Sunday morning I received an email in my dating sight box from another woman on the site. With this request from a man she knew to please email him, “he’s a good man, just being deployed he can’t access the internet, much less dating sites” she had shared her finding and connecting with her new man to him and he had spotted my “pretty profile” and asked her to contact me with his email address. Pretty??? my pics are on horses, working with my students and my Halloween costume as lady with bags attached all over my outfit.
I figured 1000’s of miles away, a New Year… 6 days later, WOW, I have never met someone, so kind, amazing, caring, and on the same plane with my new way of thinking. Thank you again for sharing your ideas, beliefs and the way to let the Universe handle the how’s in our lives as we give thanks for everything we have, and what is on its way to us!
Thank you for being so amazingly gifted and sharing!
“.”
Cat
What a great story and big smile for a Friday Morning. Thank you 🙂
YES – that is laugh out loud funny! Thanks!
What a great story! I love your insight! I am tuning my Boom Box to gratitude frequency! You are such an inspiration! I love finding your messages in my inbox, they are always the ones I open first! I bought Thank and Grow Rich for my family members for Christmas.
Thank you for your wisdom and for sharing it with us!
I love the boom box story-metaphor ! LOL While funny, it is a cautionary tale—reminding us to focus deliberately and dial in the station really wanted. For many years, I didn’t understand that NOT choosing a “station” I specifically desired, was still choosing. I ended up with left-overs and sometimes negative things. I’ve found that simple gratitude for anything cleans up everything that’s left to chance. 🙂
Had a great chuckle reading this email today! The pictures say a lot, but I’ll add a story to it.
Last week, I went to see a band I knew, playing at a small bar in Brooklyn. Certain things about the evening, pulled me into an inner tension mode as I was reminded of relationships/friendships with musicians from the past, that didn’t work out too well. I noticed the tension, tried to relax, breathe.. Then I said, “dear life/universe, I am not asking for major amazing things to happen right now (to feel better), cause clearly my body needs a moment to ease into a happier breathing.. So, instead, I will ask for an abundance of unexpected gifts that will bring joy to my heart.”
Five minutes later, I found this boom box on the street. A note was attached to it “works. Good”
Oh, and the first photo here, the card between the computer and the boom box – there’s an elk on it…
Thank you Pam!! So much love and joy to you! ❤️😘
Sasha
blissnowproductions.com
sashabliss.com
Bliss You!
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I live in Montana and each year many people go view the elk at the Missouri Breaks and Elizabeth’s description was quite funny. It is amazing to see a herd of elk and the males sorting out their herds and challenging other males who want to “horn” in on their herd.
If I said I loved you and your message, it wouldn’t be enough!
THANK YOU to the beautiful Pam and the Universe for providing her!
Dear Pam,
I needed this today. I mean really needed this. I find myself once again in that deepest darkest place one can go.
What keeps me in this physical body – your personal response to me that was so compassionate and my grown children.
I have yet to be able to rid myself of daily thoughts of suicide. And, it seems when I reach out my hand gets slapped (figuratively of course). I know I have attracted what I don’t want because I desire so much that which I think I can never have… being important to my family and friends. I know most of the root cause of my feelings of not being loved, important, etc… and intellectually I think I’m wrong . But, boy is it whipping my ass right now.
Thank you for being in my life.
Good morning msdeltabelle,
Perhaps when you go there you will think of me because I need you to be there for me, and thank you very much for caring…
Sincerely,
Michael
Hi Pam!
And the right frequency is GRATITUDE, right?
See… I meant it when I wrote to you that Thank and Grow Rich changed my life!
Again, thank YOU, Pam.
I had forgotten this story! Love your retelling of it Pam.
I just started reading “Thank and Grow Rich” and now I’m hooked! The visual of a boom box and an amorous bull moose had me rolling. What a great analogy for getting on the right frequency. Thank you for this post, and for the book I’m reading. As a fellow writer from KS who just ‘lives down the street,’ you have given me hope and joy 🙂
Hi Pam, I’ve been reading and following you for awhile. You are a true inspiration! Thank you for your unique, uplifting words; you are a treasure! Love your humor too!!:)P.D. One of my goals is to actually meet you someday to thank you!!!
Hello! Me again (promise I’m not a stalker!) Just had to tell you about my Amazinginly Awesome thing that happened this morning.
I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t sleep so I hopped back into your book. I was reading about your penchant for birds and how they be a miracle in and of themselves (paraphrased). Guess what I saw on our trip from Topeka to Wichita this morning? A HUGE bald eagle. Beautiful, regal and out in the open in a tree close to interstate. Even though I know we have eagles in KS, I have never saw one that close. The cool thing? I felt like he saw me, too. AA happened before 8 a.m. It’s gonna be a great day 🙂
Ok since we are on birds. Last week I got up to go in the kitchen and back to sit in my chair in the living room near the patio window. On my way back that’s when I saw him, a hawk perched on my patio fence a few feet from the door. I was so wowed thinking the FP was giving me a sign but I managed to inch my way to my camera and turn it on. Hawks have such keen eyesight I thought surely he’d fly before I got off a shot. I got closer and closer and he even turned and looked at me. Totally AWESOME. Then today, another hawk. Bright orange breast turning this way and that and I got MORE pictures. I’m takin it as a sign even if he was after my little sparrows!
Just read this tonight and am still ROTFL!!!
What a great picture this story painted, and how great of you to use the analogy to the UNIVERSE! I’m finding my boom box and sitting it near my desk to remind me!
Thanks, dear Pam, for always lighting the way.
Happy New Year!
I love this story, Pam! It is true that when the Universe shows up, everything flips in a split second….thanks for all the encouragement and love!
I love it! I can visualize how to make things work in my own life.
Boom box dial is turned to 10! Wonderful chuckle and nudge to begin my day. SO, appreciate your style!
Just love this! It’s the very definition of ‘be careful what you ask for’…