“He contained a whole universe that I had yet to know.”
—Patti Smith, singer, poet and visual artist
I’ve been thinking a lot about first generation reality, something that’s a rare commodity these days. First generation reality is what life looks like without all the filters. The filters are the yellow waxy buildup that stops us from seeing the light within every situation, that prevent us from seeing people as they really are—beautiful souls who want nothing but to love and give of their gifts.
When my dog Izzy was a puppy, she ran full speed ahead to every single canine she saw, wagging her tail, wanting to make a new buddy. There were no exceptions to her joy and exuberance.
This is how we would be, too, (running to every other member of the human race in joyful glee) if we hadn’t condensed first generation reality into our very limited perception.
Every person has immense light and love inside them (no exceptions) and the only reason we cannot see it is because of the lens we laid over it. We covered it up with our beliefs and expectations, with facts that we just KNOW are true. We made a judgment and assume we know what that Republican is up to or that Democrat wants to do to destroy our freedom.
Nothing is as it appears. All we see with the limited five senses is a hologram of our beliefs and expectations. And it’s flawed and it’s getting us in trouble.
I heard about an amazing man yesterday who is doing his part to bridge the divide. His name is Daryl Davis. He’s a black musician whose early years were spent overseas in diverse classrooms. When his parents moved back to the United States, he, like most of the boys in his sixth grade class, joined Boy Scouts. One day, while marching with his troop, people started throwing rocks and sticks at him.
His first thought was, “They must not like Boy Scouts.”
At that point, his parents sat him down and had the race talk with him.
He was stunned.
“How could they not like me?” he thought. “They don’t even know me.”
Since that time, he has taken on the hobby of getting to know white supremacists and, instead of yelling at them, berating them, he sits down and asks questions. He genuinely wants to know what they think.
As he says about engaging his “enemies,” “When you are actively learning about someone else you are passively teaching them about yourself.”
In other words, he gets back to first generation reality. Some black activists call his methods crazy, but as he likes to say, “I’ve got dozens of retired hoods and robes in my closet. How many do you have?”
So, with my new hero, Daryl Davis, in mind, I’d like to share one of the party games from Thank and Grow Rich.
“Stop being boring and show the world what awesome looks like.”
— ROBBY NOVAK, YOUTUBE’S KID PRESIDENT
What if every day we saw ourselves as powerful radio towers for joy, for love, for connection?
What if we adopted the attitude: “I am light, and I stand before you to love you.”
What if we took responsibility, within our own frequencies, for cleaning up toxic environments? What if we decided to emit goodness, to spew beauty?
So what if you don’t have the resources to be a philanthropist. Financial jackpots are only one (and not even the best one) of the resources in your portfolio. You can smile at people. Make conversations. Start up trivia contests in lines at the coffee shop. Make it your task today to emit molecules of happiness to every person you come in contact with. Make it your mission to uplift everyone you see.
Approach each person with this attitude: “I have been waiting to meet you all of my life.”
Happy Valentine’s Day, my fine-feathered 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.
35 Responses
Oh, Bless You, Pam Grout!!!! Thank you for this! Happy, happy, happy, happy Valentine’s Day to YOU! I am light. And I stand before you to love you.
Oh….My biggest wish of all…..that I could have coffee with EVERYONE!!!!! Diana
“What are we here for if not to make life less difficult for each other.” –George Eliot
From: Pam Grout To: d_hartje@yahoo.com Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2017 11:48 AM Subject: [New post] I am light. And I stand before you to love you #yiv1109286542 a:hover {color:red;}#yiv1109286542 a {text-decoration:none;color:#0088cc;}#yiv1109286542 a.yiv1109286542primaryactionlink:link, #yiv1109286542 a.yiv1109286542primaryactionlink:visited {background-color:#2585B2;color:#fff;}#yiv1109286542 a.yiv1109286542primaryactionlink:hover, #yiv1109286542 a.yiv1109286542primaryactionlink:active {background-color:#11729E;color:#fff;}#yiv1109286542 WordPress.com | psgrout posted: ““He contained a whole universe that I had yet to know.” —Patti Smith, singer, poet and visual artistI’ve been thinking a lot about first generation reality, something that’s a rare commodity these days. First generation reality is what life looks like w” | |
Love the George Eliot quote. May have to add to my collection.
Simply perfection. Thanks Pam!
My pleasure.
Love, love, love this!!! Thank you for sharing this!!!
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You’re welcome!
I love you Pam! Thank you for existing and sharing your light, love and wisdom. Happy Valentines Day! 🦋💜🌹😊
Happy Valentine’s Day to you, too.
My heart is jumping up and down! Every day I am in the park with my dog. And you know. He makes friends with everybody. He doesn’t care if somebody smells, is drunk or what so ever. It gives me a lot of nice chit hats with people. but I also feel embarrased if he turns to drug addicts, etc. Now I am going to say your sentence and at least make eye contact no matter what they look like. Lets see what happens tommorow in de park….
That’s awesome. Let us know how it goes. I loved this video. http://abc7ny.com/society/mans-story-of-helping-homeless-man-is-inspiring-heartbreaking/1733658/
A beacon of light and love.☺️
“I get by with a little help from my friends ” Beatles
Pam, thanks so much for expressing the joy possible in every moment. You have made my day (yet again) and I am so incredibly grateful. Much love to you, and your dedication to all that is possible.
Thanks, Gail! Love the Way of Mastery quote.
I love you… how you think, write inspire and communicate to all of us!!
^ ^
Cat
Thanks, my friend!
oh! One of my dear (Black man) friends has also done this! He is so inspiring!
He lived for a while in a place filled with KKK members, and befriended them all.
We were friends for a year before I really realized he is black (though he looks black on the outside) because he doesn’t walk through the world as a black man, he walks through the world as a human being named Derrick Key.
I am so glad to hear there are others doing this, and I will let my friend know.
As always Pam I love your posts!
Holly Jaleski
Tell Derrick thanks…from all of us!
Beautiful!!!
Aren’t we?
Thank you for sharing today’s message. It really helped. Happy Valentine’s Day. Sending lots of loving energy
As Tiny Tim said, “God bless us everyone.”
Daryl Davis: now that’s powerful. He’s definitely been hit with the blessed wand. We need to hear more of these stories publicly, especially during these never ending challenging times. I plan on sharing. Thanks, Pam!
Thank you for making the time to send wisdom, love and light on this day we need to share the love, not to mention everyday. Once a year a day is dedicated to love and you shared yours.
Thank you for sharing the beauty of Mr. Davis and how he approaches life. With open arms and heart. Namaste, Bo <3
Wow Pam,
this was a really great post.
Sometimes I am at odds with your optimism as I live with a depressed son and the air in my household is thick of sorrow and grief. But your posts really do lift he up, even if just for 5 minutes.
Thank you,
Kati (from Finland)
I know it sounds so woo-woo, but smudge your house! It works each and every time for me. Sending my best, K
Smudge my house? How? Burning sage?
Do you feel how you are changing the world? If just one of us does this exercise, woo hoo hoo, the world will change. Here I go!
Awesome! What the world needs now is love, sweet love! It’s the only thing, that there’s just too little of..
I absolutely love this! It feels my eyes with happy tears 🙂
BTW: any chance you’ve read “Seven Brief Lessons in Physics” by Carlo Rovelli? It’s a short physics primer that reads like poetry. It reminded me of what you wrote in E-Squared. I think you’d like it!
This is so beautiful. Thank you.
I love your posts! Every single one is a goldmine filled with piles and piles of love nuggets and wisdom nuggets and great happiness nuggets. Thank you for that. As I was reading the last sentence of today’s post, I am reminded of a meditation revelation I received last week, I felt, very strongly, in my soul that when I open my eyes I would say to every other soul I encounter “Hello, oh how I’ve missed you!” It brought me to tears and then to the greatest feeling of love, that soul to soul love that can’t see flesh or egos or hatred or ugliness but just the other souls we miss standing next to us, sleeping with us and passing us by. Connecting to that source inside feels so good!!! I want to do it all the time! It’s the best ever. My mind couldn’t make this stuff up; if I tried to think of something really out of this world, I still wouldn’t come up with it! Just wanted to share and say thanks! You’re amazing! Jennifer patterson
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