“Our love for the world keeps eternity wide and bright and full of potential.” — Nick Cave
Like any conversation, a good blog post attempts to keep the reverberations going.
So just a quick postscript to yesterday’s words:
I like to think my cosmic daughter added these thoughts to my thoughts about loving the world:
“Despite what the culture prescribes, there is nothing that needs to be added, nobody you need to become.
“In fact, other than the mind’s nonsense, nothing could ever be wrong.
“Any method or technique that pretends to offer something or somewhere to reach at some nebulous future (in other words, anything that’s not now) by its very nature starts with the assumption that something’s wrong.
“Even a goal of self-discovery only keeps you on the path. But there is no path. You’re already there.”
“I’ve learned that when they call you crazy, it usually means you’re onto something.”—Jacqueline Novogratz
Happy Monday, my peeps! I know I typically send out Friday missives — mainly so I can wish you the most astounding weekend of your life, but thought I’d mix it up a bit.
Plus, while walking around my yard this morning, counting new lilies, adoring the clematis, reveling in the morning’s avian Opus #143, a voice clearly spoke to me—“This is your mission, Pam.”
“Say what?”
“You heard me. Your life’s work is to notice, give thanks, be joyful. And don’t let anybody tell you that’s not enough.”
“Even with all the potential causes, protests, issues I keep hearing about?”
Yes, I’ve been regularly hitting up the Dude with the question, “What is mine to do?”
This morning’s answer couldn’t have been clearer.
“Love your life, create a field of joy, expand your presence.”
Not the presence, it emphasized, that the world maintains you “should” expand — get more likes, attract new followers, sell more books– but the presence of peace and possibility, of imagination, new ideas.
But what about all the “shoulds” I inherited from my culture: that I “should” build my 401K, keep my fingernails painted, rid my lawn of all those beautiful yellow flowers that eventually turn into white wispy delights?
The rules are extensive, many buried beneath awareness, taken for granted, believed to be absolute duty as a responsible human being.
These invisible “shoulds” are buried in the left hemisphere of our brains, the rational, pragmatic side that constructs a map of the world that currently dominates reality. It alleges I “should” put up defenses, stay safe, stay separate, stay loyal to the dominant narrative. And sadly, that map has formed a world with little room for awe and wonder.
But it’s the awe and wonder, the beauty of it all, as Dostoevsky said, that can save the world.
So, no, I have not identified any new assignment, any new cause. But I have been given full-throated permission to abandon all “shoulds,” to simply walk through life as a loving, energetic field of presence. To forever enjoy “this very now” and be open to the unbounded truth that surpasses all maps, all limitations, all “shoulds.”
Here’s to enjoying a ridiculously rowdy, sensuously satisfying week, the best of your big, beautiful life.
“Act as if the universe is a prodigious miracle created for your amusement and illumination.”–Rob Brezsney
In the movie, Groundhog Day, Bill Murray wakes up every morning to Cher belting out the lyrics of the popular 1965 hit, “I Got You, Babe.”
For much of the movie, the self-centered weatherman resists and cusses and hates the time loop he finds himself in.
Finally, he decides to try a different perspective, to open himself to the idea that maybe there’s something else at play. Maybe he’s not the axis around which the world revolves.
Nothing else changes—the same song, the same deejays, the same weather report wake him up each morning. But once he puts down his dukes and begins connecting to something outside himself, he notices everything is different—more alive, more loving.
When he decides to trust in the intelligence outside of himself, when he decides to stop fighting, drop his defenses, “put his little hand in mine….” as Cher sings, life shifts.
So I’d like to pose a little experiment. Here’s the hypothesis, “There is a peaceful, loving intelligence that’s way stronger than any judgment, doubt, anxiety I might feel. And trusting that is all I need do.”
Anxiety and all its insolent cousins arises in the left hemisphere of the brain, the part that calculates, measures, judges. According to British neuroscientist, Iain McGilchrist, the left brain doesn’t know what it’s talking about. It literally makes up stuff. It gives us fake directions for coping with life. Because our society is so left-brain oriented, we all turn to thinking (that scared, calculating left side of brain) to address our daily lives.
The left side comes in handy, but it also causes us to miss the magical reality in which we live. So to test the above hypothesis, I suggest making the decision each morning to trust that, behind the scenes, everything is being orchestrated by a power much greater than ourselves.
Think of those dot-to-dot puzzles we used to do as kids. When you begin, you have no idea what the picture is going to be. It could be an elephant or a lamp or Snoopy, for all you know. Your only instruction is to move to the next dot. One dot at a time.
You don’t have to figure out the whole picture. Or worry about where to go. You just trust that moving to the next dot is your only job.
And that’s enough.
So today and maybe for the next five days, choose to trust. Don’t figure your day out. Or think you have to plan everything. Just trust. The truth that surpasses all things will cheer and sing, “I Got You, Babe.”
“I don’t want to wait for the world to change to be free.”—Byron Katie
Joyous Tuesday, you brilliant beings of light!
I am just back from Ireland where my mister and I searched and found his family roots.
We celebrated Mother’s Day with a wild pack of mountain goats while hiking in the Burren, met half the population of the tiny Aran Island of Inis Oirr and “just happened” to land our tickets to the Book of Kells at precisely 2:22. Thank you, Taz!
I could go on and on about the synchronicities—meeting just the right person at just the right time, finding fairy rings, happening on to St. Bridget’s Well (and leaving notes), sitting next to Taylor Swift’s table….But, because I’m busy catching up with my life here (amazing how much a garden can grow in 15 days), I’m sharing a fun story that popped into my inbox this morning. Thank you, Laura:
“I bet you get tired of readers and followers sending you manifestation stories they think are funny. I’ve been feeling a little flat after manifesting a very big thing…like scared it will never happen again so I’m re-reading/doing E-Squared.
“Exercise 1: my plantar fasciitis went away (thanks Dude),
“Exercise 2: “Show me a yellow bike” Yeah found my bike in 24 hours.
“Exercise 3: I’m on holiday in Dordogne, France (manifested this) and I’m in love, feel like I’m home. Decided I’m gonna manifest a house sit for this time next year.
“Today on a hike, I met a French hiking group and they were chatting with us. My new friend is doing a house sit here and now and is also pining to return. I introduced her to a lady (my French is better) and explained she is house sitting.
“This lady then busts into perfect English “Voila! I need a house sitter next May. May I contact you?” LOLOLOL does it count if my friend manifested this? Or should I give it another 24 hours. Luckily, I didn’t start laughing about this until I was alone. Cheers Pam, thanks for getting me out of my mini funk.”
So first of all, I NEVER get tired of readers sending manifestation stories. And I’m honored that my words played a tiny part in eradicating funk of any kind. And I love sharing these stories, because, to me, the story of magic and possibility is the only conversation worth having.
I also treasure this photo sent from a “Thank and Grow Rich “group in Dripping Springs, Texas.
I am dripping in love for all of you.
Here’s to Tuesday and all the magic it offers if we only take the time to look.
“In the end, every single path leads back here to love.”—Elizabeth Gilbert
First, a big sloppy thank you to all of you kind, beautiful people who posted such compassionate words right here on this very blog.
It’s never comfortable admitting your shortcomings, especially in a culture that expects perfection and constant progress. But I couldn’t continue to blog with a straight face without owning up to this hugely significant life event and the lapse in my own practice.
What was so clearly shown to me (As the Course says, nothing is against me, everything is for me) is that, despite my looking the other direction, I was never abandoned. The loving life force from which we all spring never left its post. This Divine Grace (call it the Dude, Cosmo K, whatever works for you) is eternal, immovable.
There’s nothing any of us can do to sever our connection. It can’t be done. It’s who we are.
Our thoughts, on the other hand, could use a little work.
So often we use the powerful mojo of our thoughts to create what the second of the Ten Commandments called “a graven image.” This is an image that looks real, that sure seems to be causing us problems. But it’s a version of life that’s not valid. It hides the truth, blocks the miracle.
So glad to know that, like Dorothy with her red ruby slippers, I can click my heels at any time and return home.
“We have great opportunities to see great beauty every single day.”—Rick Rubin
Here’s Taz, her cousin Zach and me some 25 years ago.
True confession: I recently fell off the wagon of awesome and bomdiggity. A recent family tragedy slipped me an unexpected mickey.
Normally, my spiritual practice involves overlooking false realities such as fear, misery and disconnection. I don’t give much attention to the commentary, judgement and mental bluster my thoughts sometimes churn up.
But the death of a young, vital cousin of Taz’s threw me off my game.
For the most part, I don’t believe in death. I feel every bit as connected to my daughter as I ever did. Our love and deep bond is indestructible.
But it doesn’t make the physical loss of our beloveds any less jarring. And that sneaky asshat never ceases looking for opportunities to throw in its two-cents. ‘Life sucks,’ might have been one of its recent protestations. I might have even failed to send gratitudes to my posse for a day or two and/or ignore my daily Course practice.
Thankfully, life itself—its real dynamism, its budding trees, its stunning avian orchestra—continues to show off and show up for me, continues to point out that life never ends, and that except for my misguided thoughts and beliefs, it definitely DOES NOT suck. I recently read and related to a statement about “being a willing accomplice to the scandal of another spring.”
I am so grateful that life (and my ACIM practice) persists in reminding me of what’s true behind appearances, that it instructs me to continue counting my blessings and choosing to put my attention on beauty. And to always–no matter what–make room within myself for life’s unending immensity.
When I’m open to other dimensions — higher dimensions than ones we habitually focus upon — material appearances lose their hold. When I train my attention on possibility and collaborate, instead of arguing with reality, miracles continue to find me. And I return to the peace of my true nature.
“We can’t see what we don’t believe.”—Deepak Chopra
I mentioned the Telepathy Tapes in my last post. Many of you report having now listened to this podcast that offers compelling proof that the materialist paradigm in which we’ve long believed is not quite the “whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help us God.”
The fact that the Telepathy Tapes have become a phenomenon points to the fact that humanity is undergoing an unparalleled transition.
People everywhere, people you’d least expect are conceding that consciousness is the driver of reality. Peer-reviewed, double-blind studies are proving that all we perceive and experience springs from our thoughts and beliefs.
In one of the episodes, Ky Dickens, the creator of the podcast, mentions Lawrence Anthony, the South African conservationist I wrote about in E-Cubed. He’s the guy who rescued a herd of elephants who were slated to be slaughtered. Before transporting them to his Thula Thula game reserve, he spent time with them in the wild, befriended them, made them feel comfortable.
When he died unexpectedly of a heart attack on March 2, 2012, the elephants he had saved trekked 12 hours through the Zululand bush to form a circle around his home. They hadn’t even seen him for 18 months. How could they possibly have known?
The postscript to this story is that for several years on the anniversary of Anthony’s death, the same herd of elephants returned to his home, formed a circle and paid their respects.
The Telepathy Tapes also details a parrot that could read its owner’s mind and an animal communicator that was able to figure out why Ky’s new rescue dog was having trouble adjusting to his new family.
Stories like this shake our belief systems to the core. And beg the question, “What else is possible?” “What are we missing when we stubbornly cling to conditioned ways of seeing the world?”
In September, I’m joining a stellar group of 20 presenters in Paso Robles, California, several of whom are animal communicators and horse whisperers. I said yes to this invitation, not because I’ve decided to suddenly jump back on the lecture circuit, but because I want to hear what these amazing people have to share. All of them have opened to a broader perspective than the one currently going around.
Not only will I be presenting, but all of us (yes, that includes you if you accept this invitation) will be participating in discussion panels, Q&A sessions and connection circles.
The Journey On Podcast Summit runs September 18-22 at the Journey On Ranch and the Paso Robles Expo Center. I guarantee you will never see the world the same again.
“Spiritual transformation is our remaining pathway to sustainability as a species embedded on this planet.”–Gayatri Naraine
I’ve always been an agitator, a mutineer, a person who questioned the story I was fed. Not that I didn’t follow the rules as a kid. I did–so much so that I sorta lost myself for awhile.
I lost the real me, the Isadora Duncan me, the me that deep down knew the consciousness of oneness that lies within everything.
That can happen when you try to fit in with a culture that continuously preaches fear, separation and scarcity. A culture that constantly insists “you should be ashamed of yourself.” Oh and by the way, here’s a product or a workshop that can fix it.
I realize now that the only avenue left is to overturn that story for good.
Everything I write about revolves around the interruption of the regularly-scheduled programming, about moving from a material paradigm, the paradigm in which we’re all deeply embedded, to a spiritual paradigm where consciousness matters, where love is already flourishing.
The Taz Grout 222 Foundation is about interrupting the regularly-scheduled programming that maximizes selfishness. It celebrates the power of creativity and regeneration and the truth of the world—that all of us are deeply connected. We throw little pebbles of hope into the ocean of consciousness.
In my books and right here on this blog, I share miracle stories that interrupt regularly-scheduled programming about what is and what isn’t possible. Click here to read a fun manifestation story about a 10-year-old whose fourth-grade teacher was obsessed with Duran Duran and jokily asked her to find them on a Christmas break trip to London.
Regularly-scheduled programs are the products of beliefs, most of which were assigned ages ago by people we don’t even know. And unfortunately, the cognitive and perceptual mechanisms of the material world adjust to the programming we’re taught. We literally cannot see or experience things happening all around us because they don’t fit our conditioned programing.
Which is why I’m about to recommend a podcast. It’s called The Telepathy Tapes and wow, talk about a mind being blown. Or at least the minds who grew up (read: all of us) in a materialist paradigm. The podcast follows non-verbal kids who can’t talk in the regularly scheduled way, but who communicate through their minds, through their consciousness.
Even though it’s my stock in trade, language has major limitations.
Once we name a tree or a frog, for example, that’s all they can ever be for us. Once we make a determination about a certain person, that’s all that person can ever be. Language collapses the wave and then we’re stuck with what appears to be the materiality of what that creates. Our conditioning, our language limits how we see the world.
I hereby commit to interrupting all regularly scheduled programing and tuning into an infinite mindset where every possibility exists.
Have an extraordinarily epic weekend, my dear comrades in spiritual mischief.
“People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.”–Christine Smith’s Epistle
Albert Einstein once said that while arrows of hate were often shot in his direction (which tends to happen when you pose a theory that questions materialism and everything science once believed to be fact), they never touched him because they came from a world he did not inhabit.
Had I remembered that quote at the time, I would have used it in the email I sent to a reader who recently asked if I lived in some kind of bubble.
She thanked me for my books and said she was re-reading E-Squared because she needed to remind herself that there is still good and magic in the world.
However, soon after getting worked up and excited about life’s possibilities, the ego, like a rubber band springing back, piped in with “but the world is so awful right now.”
If anyone else is wondering, let me just say I do not live in a bubble. I’m painfully aware of the current zeitgeist. Luckily, I’m even more aware of a spiritual reality where all things start from within.
Everything we now see in the material world started from within—one person had an idea for an invention, or a type of governance or a piece of art that rocked how people perceive reality.
To feel despair is to simply ignore the fact that tomorrow doesn’t have to be a repeat of today.
In E-Cubed or maybe it was Thank and Grow Rich, I wrote about algorithms, how they show us whatever we look for, how they give us more of what we choose to click on. It’s important to remember that billions and billions of dollars are being spent to capitalize on outrage. Big corporations monetize fear, worry and angst which they’ve learned is more effective than simply offering another cute kitty picture.
What they don’t advertise, because well, it would harm their bottom line, is that their sole profit strategy is to jam up our frequency. When we’re distracted like most of us are, we can’t pick up the clear, pure signal of Truth. When we continue down the rabbit hole of believing this is how life is, we’re robbed of our capacity for transformation, for new life, for new arrangements and new possibilities.
The Truth signal is never absent. It continuously transmits guidance, love, light, really everything we could ever need. It is ceaseless, uninterrupted.
So why do we allow it to be jammed with algorithms designed by those whose own frequency is polluted with fear, greed and other lies?
So I pose two questions today.
1. Does the worry, the fear help you in any way? Can you think of even one benefit you’re receiving from the story which has currently captivated humanity’s attention?
2. Since we all get to choose what we want more of (that’s how algorithms work and also how the beneficent, loving universe works) what do you really want to click on?
I urge you all to go out and enjoy the most stupendous, fabulous, distraction-free weekend of your life.
“In the vast expanse of this unfolding universe, light and love are ultimately sovereign.”–Charles Bigger
I’m just home from 10 days in the beautiful Savannah, Georgia, where my sister has lived for four decades. I was able to catch up with cousins and nieces and nephews and enjoy the azaleas that are just beginning to bloom.
Not being an ostrich, I can’t help but notice that things in the outside world look a little shaky. Some might say a cross between a soap opera and a horror movie.
And I constantly wonder, “What is mine to do?”
Again and again, the guidance I get is to calm the thoughts in my own head, to question the things I believe to be absolute fact and to remember that stressing and efforting does nothing but keep me away from the beauty that’s here in the now-now.
So in the service of getting all our minds to relax, thereby allowing life’s basic goodness to get through, I’d like to share the following stories that recently popped into my inbox:
1. A reader from Hungary (I love that I get emails from across the globe) said my Course in Miracles Experiment is drastically changing her life. She says she just found her soul mate after years of looking. She even sent me a video of a beautiful Hungarian folk song.
2. The next story exemplifies just how crafty the universe can be in delivering our good.
Take it away, Joe.
“Many years ago, while trying to sell life insurance, I drove a smashed up 1963 Valiant. This car was so trashed that I would park it down the street so prospective clients wouldn’t see it. Clearly, I needed a newer car.
“I set the intention for a 2-door hardtop, big V8, less than 25K miles, with a 3-speed Hurst shifter and a price tag of $1,300 tops.
“I prayed about it and, knowing that faith without works is dead, I decided to take action by calling car rental lots.
“My first call was to a wrong number, but I began joking with this stranger and even asked if he happened to have a car for sale. He said, “As a matter of fact, I do and I have to sell it before Saturday, my wedding day, because I promised my bride-to-be it I’d get rid of it.
“Because it was already Thursday, two days away, he was willing to take $1300 for this Oldsmobile Cutlass S, 2 door hardtop, roughly 23K miles, 350 cubic inch V8 that he had ordered special from the factory with a 3-speed Hurst shifter.”
3. Joe also told me this fun story about manifesting a copy of the original Course in Miracles.
“Many years ago, a bus driver where I worked had recently discovered A Course in Miracles and was an enthusiastic evangelist. I decided I wanted my own copy and made that intention. A few weeks later, about 100 school type lockers mysteriously showed up in the hallway outside my office. Upon opening one of the lockers, I found on the top shelf a leather-bound book with gold trimmed pages. I assumed someone was going to miss their Bible, took it down to see if there was a name in it (there wasn’t) and, much to my surprise, it was a Course in Miracles in brand spanking new condition.”
4. This one’s from Madeleine who was at a Writers Conference in Chicago.
“When the organizers opened it up for questions, an older man stood up and said he was not a writer, but a heart surgeon at Rush University Hospital in Chicago. He was, however, looking for a writer to help him get the word out about this amazing force in the universe that everyone can access and that helps patients heal. Before operating, he said, he always told patients about this healing power. Those who believed him always had much better outcomes. Needless to say, you could hear a pin drop in the room.”
This last story comes, not from my inbox, but from FB. Maybe you’ve seen this piece, written by Hopi Indian Leader White Eagle.
“This moment that mankind is experiencing now can be seen as either a door or a hole. The decision to fall into the hole or go through the door is yours. If you absorb information 24 hours a day, with negative energy, constantly nervous, and pessimistic, you will fall into the hole.
“But if you take the opportunity to look at yourself, use the time to rethink life and death, to care for yourself and others, you will walk through a portal.
“Take the perspective of an eagle that sees everything from above with a broader perspective. There is a social issue in this crisis but also a spiritual issue. They both go hand in hand.
“Learn the resistance from the example of the Indian and African people: We are and still are being threatened. But we never stopped singing, dancing, building bonfires and having joy.
“Don’t feel guilty for feeling happy in these difficult times. It doesn’t help at all to be sad or angry. Resistance is resistance through joy!
“When we enter the door, we are given a new worldview because we have faced our fears and overcome adversity. Make it a habit to meet the Holy everywhere, every day. ~Hopi Indian Chief White Eagle
