“Artists are the gatekeepers of the truth. It is our duty to be the voice of people who are overlooked and marginalized.”–Common
So, I’ve seen a lot of life-changing movies lately. I already raved over “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” the film about Mr. Rogers’ unflinching belief in the power of goodness. This past weekend, I saw, “Sorry to Bother You,” another awesome film with world-altering potential.
That’s why I like art so much. It has the ability to palpably move us without widening unnecessary rifts. Art, as far as I’m concerned, is all about communicating transformational messages.
I had the pleasure of chauffeuring several artists from the National African American Quilt Convention that was held in my hometown last week. These quilts schooled us on Jim Crow, voting rights and being a warrior woman, to name just a few.
So, today, because I’m thinking about it, I want to run an excerpt from my latest book, Art & Soul, Reloaded, about the power of art to truly change the world. Here goes:
I thought this was a book about being an artist.
But as I let the muses speak, as I committed to being a channel, I noticed a second message bursting forth: that being creative is about imagining a new world, about designing a new vision.
Art, when done right, orchestrates healing.
As artists, we’re out in the world conducting fieldwork on the culture.
Rather than protest and whine about the state of the world today, we must let our frustrations be our muse. We must let our disgruntlements inspire us to sing, to dance, to shout, “This is what we want instead.”
When a hyacinth macaw loses its nest in the disappearing rainforest, it doesn’t mope or call its therapist. It sings. It makes a joyful noise, reminding us what we have lost.
Ultimately, the world will be bound back together, not by politicians, but by thousands of individuals giving our gifts, thousands of individuals becoming ambassadors of the possible.
Our job is to put our art out there, to get others to gasp, weep, and hoot with joy. And only then, when their mouths are open, can we pop in the red pill.
Not only does art pry us open, but it encourages us to reach out, to join hands, to become a collective force for good. DIY doesn’t mean doing it alone. Creating, after all, can be a team sport.
One person taps out a beat. Another leads into a melody, and before long, the entire audience has joined the chorus, raising hope for the whole world.
Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest book, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.
18 Responses
love your blog but not receiving ACIM ones of late. are you not doing it anymore?
Dancing my dance, singing my song, fulfilling my mission with joy on Long Island the best I can..💖
i do my best to focus on the positive instead of the negative especially my big imagination that sometimes focus on the negative and imagine negative stories in my mind, i do the hooponopono to reset to the positive.
Dear Pam
Another Wow Blog.
Please do look me up when you are Toronto. Please come on my show.
You are amazing.
Marianne Funny
WOW!!!
This post really speaks to me. It was the hardest post yet for me to find just one or two quotes to share on Twitter. Thank you for listening to your muses and calling us forth to also listen to ours. You are a wonderful gift, my friend.
thank you for the movie suggestions!
Looking forward to reading your upcoming book, Pam! Thea Rademacher
I’ve saved this one. I want to read it several times over a space of time. It’s profound and valuable. Thank you for sharing this.
I always look forward to your blog and save them. I am also curious whether you will continue with ACIM. Thanks.
Thankyou Pam. I love this sentence : “Our job is to put our art out there, to get others to gasp, weep and hoot with joy.” YES! Your art has certainly done all three for me, and it’s inspiring to be reminded that we artists, whatever our artistic expression might be, are here to express it, share it and celebrate life through it. Amen. 😊👍🏻🦋
What lesson is for today?
Loved this, Pam!!!
Here are some thoughts for you… You are God.
That’s right, YOU are God. You may have had people telling you all your life that God was some divine force that you were to look up to, pray to and possibly believe was going to punish you for wrongdoing. That is all incorrect. You are the Creator and the master of the Universe. Everything in your world is springing forth from your consciousness. You imagine something and if you decide to believe in it you will make it so. Now before you get too carried away with the fact that you can wield the infinite power of Creation we need to let you know that it is not as easily said as done. Also, we want to let you know you are no better than anyone else because they are all God too.
This needs a little explanation and the easiest way to do that is to suggest a model that you will be familiar with. If you have a device that is connected to the Internet, it is part of a network of virtually unlimited potential. One day soon, there will be robots and androids of various capabilities connected to the Internet like your smart phone or laptop computer. As their capabilities grow, they will have increasingly more freedom of action and function. They will have a local “brain” defining their individuality and controlling their interaction with the world around them but they are all linked by their connection to “the network”.
The same is true for you and me but we are connected to an infinite all-knowing network with unlimited potential and power. Every action ever taken and every thought ever thought are present in what we can call the God Network.
Who are we? We are adventurers and explorers on missions into the time and space realm where the creation of all “things” takes place. And that part is all up to us. We are the Designers of Reality. The entire material world springs from our consciousness. We can do no wrong because the stories are all of our own design and nothing can happen to us that we don’t allow into our story. You may say “what about tragedy and death?” They are just plot lines that we go along with as we learn to be more satisfying Creators. You have done this more times than you could probably count and death is simply the end of a storyline. Your death is only important to those characters who have been sharing a particular adventure with you. For you, you emerge back into “Universal Consciousness” released from any imagined limitations or imperfections. You fully recognize that you are one with all of Creation – no separation of any kind exists – all is one unified field of energy. Don’t worry though – you will retain the individual memories of all the adventures you have created and the associations you have formed in the network.
Why is knowing this important? The main reason is that if you don’t realize it you may spend way too much time trying to please others or follow someone else’s ideas about how you should live. They may think they should have some control over what you do or say but they don’t. This is why the status quo does not want you to realize that you are God. Most people are still suffering from the delusion that they need you to act a certain way for them to find happiness and satisfaction with their life. They believe in competition and survival of the fittest. They think you have to work hard to get what you want. The truth is you do not need to work hard for anything or suffer at all unless you believe it is necessary to “deserve” what you want. You certainly are not required to do anything simply to please someone else. You can never serve the greater good by doing anything you don’t “have your heart in”. The best advice is to let your heart be your guide and appreciate every good thing that flows into your experience. The challenge is to keep any fears or worries at bay and chase them away with love and joy in the wonder of your existence as an individualized character in this Creation Game.
The biggest challenge with all of this is that we are very conditioned to looking outside of ourselves and thinking what we see is the real world. Our very sophisticated computer like selves have been observing and cataloging experience since before we were born into our current physical form. We are translators of frequency and vibration that we give form to. No two people will have an identical experience of reality because our own unique “processors” are translating the frequencies and vibrations into form and what we come up with is totally up to us – after all, we are God. There will be a lot of overlapping in our views of reality since we are all constantly immersed in the shared thoughts, beliefs and visions of each other. The more you introduce new environments and circumstances to yourself the broader your view of possibilities and realities will become. Ultimately it is all in your mind and imagination.
If any of this has resonance with you a visit to http://www.DesignerOfReality.com may offer you some ideas on taking better advantage of the fact that you are God. I realize that this may come as a bit of shock to you and there may be doubt as to the truth of what we have discussed here. It is only recently that larger numbers of people have begun to realize these truths. It is a result of the natural evolution of consciousness – our species is evolving at an increasing pace. The existing world order does not want to believe in this reality because their model is one of control over the masses based on beliefs of lack and fear of “the other”. Discovering that we actually live in a world of unlimited potential and abundance where no “bad” can come to anyone without their permission eliminates the need for all of the laws, limitations and controls.
For now, please try and accept that you are God. Actually “everything” is God and “your name here” is an individualized character that God (the real You) has imagined to have fun and adventure creating new wonders in this time space reality we have devised at the edge of Creation. Nothing exists but what we believe in this moment. And since we are God, we can change the game anytime we are able to believe in a new reality. Learning how to do that and create the world of our hopes and dreams is our prime objective. Let’s have fun and create a world of ever more joy and happiness continually searching for new wants to fulfill in our ever expanding Universe.
Hi Pam!
I’ve read all your books and I’m looking forward to your next one!! 🙂
I am an artist and thank you for reminding me to stand up for my art!! I love reading your posts every morning -they give me hope and joy to go forth on my day.
I heard a quote from Abraham recently that said, “argue for your limitations and you get to keep them.“ I think about this often especially before I might start on a downward rant…
Thanks for the inspiration Pam! You are the best!
I create purses (more like works of art, as I’m told). My website is PodPurse.com.
Thanks, Jill
Sent from my iPhone
>
The gift freely given grows in goodnes- Mark Whitman- message received in a vivid dream
…mark that “goodness” – Marco
Thank you again, Pam. I love finding your posts in my email!