The continuing dress rehearsal in my head

“I’m thinking about naming my first son Emmy so I can say I’ve got one. I want Emmy, Oscar and Tony – and my daughter Grammy.”- Noah Wyle

Alessia Cara, the 21-year-old Canadian pop singer who just won the Grammy for Best New Artist, is living proof of one of my top ten maxims: “We animate into our lives whatever we put our attention upon.”

The night of her big win, when she strode to the stage to accept her award, she said, “Holy cow. I’m shaking. I’ve been pretend-winning Grammys since I was a kid, like in my shower.”

So what I want to know is “what are you rehearsing?” In your head. In your shower. In your everyday thoughts.

If you can’t answer right away, just look around. Look at where you are. Look at what you have.

That, my friend, is what you’ve been rehearsing.

In ACIM Lesson 37, we rehearse a statement that will upgrade every single thing in your life: My holiness blesses the world.

My purpose, the Course tells me, is to see the world through my holiness. To see it through the beauty Cara sings about in her hit, “Scars to Your Beautiful.”

Until I fully realize that I am holy, completely, 100 percent whole, I will still believe in (and therefore see) sacrifice. Until I learn to bless the world, to see through the eyes of gratitude, there will continue to be a “payment” involved. Either from myself (“I need to try harder”) or from someone else (“It’s not fair what that creep did to me”).

And here’s the real kicker. From the perception of problem (even the tiniest complaint), I will continue to see loss. And I will have no idea that my lack of gratitude, my lack of blessing, my lack of wholeness is the cause.

So today, I embrace my holiness and know that my great joy is to bless the world.

Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her new book, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.