Why I broke up with Dr. Google

“My faith is held together by wonder—by every defiant commitment to presence and paying attention.”—Cole Arthur Riley

Today, at our local bike/coffee shop, we were discussing the back story of coffee, speculating on what impelled the first imbiber to suddenly take interest in the bright red berries.

It so happens that back when I was a budding journalist, writing a monthly food column, I investigated this very question, learning that in 850 CE an Ethiopian goat herder noticed his herd, after chomping on the berries of a certain wild shrub, displayed an unusual degree of energy and vigor.

Today, of course, the goat herder would never have noticed. He’d be too busy checking his TikTok.

Or consider aspirin, developed from an ingredient in willow bark. Who first recognized the bark’s analgesic properties?

I bring up stories like this to illustrate the point that we are always being sourced, consistently being guided. To believe we’re stranded here on this big ball of rock without resources, to think the natural world isn’t constantly working on our behalf is just plain reckless.

The world’s provisions, in fact, exceed our wildest imaginings. Our only task is to notice, to pay attention, to break away from the digital colonization that subdues most humans.

I included an experiment in my book, E-Cubed called Nature vs. News. The supposition readers tested was that all information they really need to know is happening right outside their window, right there in their neighborhood, right in their own hearts. It postulated that what they pick up from the news media (and social media) is mostly pointless, often not true and has no real relevance on their life.  Except for the blocks it erects between them and the field of infinite potentiality.

Ignoring and discounting things like the stars, the plants, and the sliver of a waxing moon, whose cycles affect everything from tides to fiddler crabs to our sleep habits, blinds us to a major force of energy that we could and should be using in our favor. Being disconnected from the natural world wreaks havoc on our bodies. Ignoring things that affect us deeply and slavishly following things that have little or no impact causes stress, depression, and anxiety.

If we want to create more energy and therefore more “bandwidth” for a joyful life, we must begin to pay attention to things that matter. And let go of all the things that don’t.

Here’s to the Ethiopian goat herder, coffee and all of us that trust that the only thing that really matters is the indestructible joy and pulse of life being broadcast from every tree, every star, every bird on the planet, those that know real life is created from being in tune with the universal broadcast, the sacred buzz.

#222 Forever!

Pam Grout is the author of 22 books including E-Squared, Thank & Grow Rich , The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World)and her latest, The Ego’s Playbook.