Pam Grout

The light and love that sets us free

March 3, 2026 31 Comments

“Worry and love are different frequencies.”-Michael Beckwith

I tried. I really tried.

I so wanted to see the full blood red moon last night. I’ve still got a posse that dances to the full moon (from wherever we hail) each month and well, it’s just cool to celebrate a rare skyscape, especially one that’s ushering in a new era of growth and possibility.

But in Kansas, where I’m currently situated, the moon was completely covered with dense clouds.

Still, I love knowing that it was there, doing its celestial dance even though my eyeballs couldn’t see it. Which is often the case with truth and other such things of the spirit.

I continue to believe that my vision for a more beautiful, free future for all beings on earth is arising even though it’s currently covered with the thick cloud of a patriarchal, consumer-mad paradigm.

Yes, I sometimes doubt. I believe what I see instead of what I know. I fear. I worry. I’m tempted to curl up into a tight little ball.

And that’s when I beg the Holy Spirit, the Divine Buzz, the thing that cannot be named to help me see things differently. To see beyond the cloud. Otherwise, I’m no good to anyone. Without spiritual practice, I’m pretty much hopeless.

Many people don’t know this, but Gandhi, before he changed history forever, devoted many years to feeding and growing his spiritual mojo. True spiritual mojo, a love force that Gandhi called ahimsa, is a force that changes things, not because it fights and resists, but because it’s the truth. Anything that’s not real, anything built on a lie, (domination, separation, limitation) can never be successful in the end. It just can’t.

I didn’t point this out in my last post, the one about the wild boars who for 22 years have been fertilizing the farmer’s tea plantation, but the reason that they continue today, two decades later is because the farmer didn’t put up his dukes. He didn’t fight. He didn’t erect a fence. He appealed to truth. He asked, he apologized and he agreed to work hand-in-hand with nature for the greater good of all.

That’s my goal, too.

Lastly, I want to share this lovely video about the Earth Elders that the Taz Grout 222 Foundation is supporting this year.

Have a beautiful, truthful, real week.

#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.

Just the way things aren’t

February 27, 2026 14 Comments

“We can find strength in our collective losses, as long as we can free ourselves from the gravitational pull of the trauma and move forward, all our ghosts in tow, into this beautiful waiting world.”—Nick Cave

I’m just back from Patagonia where we celebrated my birthday, a solar eclipse and, of course, Taz and 222.

So I’ve got three stories for you on this beautiful Friday heading into what I now proclaim will be “the very best weekend of your life.”

All three offer proof that to throw up our hands and say, “But that’s just the way things are” is the first mistake.

Yes, there is a lot of momentum or gravitational pull, as Nick Cave described it, to believe that life sucks, that people are inherently violent and greedy, that we’re all headed for sure and certain disaster.

However, this socially-accepted anxiety negates the truth of the way things really are. When we step back from the dots of the pointillist painting, we find deep connection, no separation, a living reality waiting patiently for us to surrender our belief that it’s “just the way things are.”

That’s why I like sharing a different narrative.

Story #1: I used to post manifestation stories that popped into my inbox on the regular. They present evidence that we have a lot more say-so in this world than the popular opinion of “we’re powerless pawns.”

This is from, Rachel, who recently discovered the magic of E-Squared.

“Not even 24 hours after starting Experiment #1, something wild happened. I went to work, and my second client, who is always so sweet and brings me coffee, walked in with a large bag. Inside was a beautiful long puffer jacket and a hoodie. She had ordered clothes, but the company sent her someone else’s order and told her to keep it. She’s 5’1″, and I’m tall and a size large, so she instantly thought of me. And let me tell you… I’m obsessed with puffer jackets and basically any kind of hoodie. Both items were exactly the colors I would have chosen myself.

“I literally started laughing, and my poor client had no idea why. I was so grateful, and honestly still in disbelief. I felt compelled to share this with you because it gave me such a spark of hope. I want to change my life, and this feels like a sign that it’s possible.”

Story #2: When announcing the choice of The Earth Elders for this year’s Taz Grout 222 award, I mentioned a story about King Charles and a nearly-extinct white butterfly. Here’s how it went down. Last year, while doing a fire ceremony with the shamans and elders at his Highgrove Residence, the king got spiritual confirmation of their mutual intention for reconciliation and collaboration when the rare butterfly, appearing out of nowhere, landed on the ceremony leader’s shoulder.

Maybe the industrial mainstream paradigm that everything’s separate is not “just the way things are.” Maybe we do live in a living system where life has purpose and meaning.

Story #3: This is from Maasaki Nagai, Kannagara Guardian:

“A farmer in Japan went out to his tea plantation one morning only to find that many of his tea trees had been uprooted and destroyed by wild boars in the middle of the night.

“He thought to himself, ‘Due to environmental destruction brought about by human activity the boars have little to eat. That’s why they came to the fields last night. They also must be upset at us humans for encroaching upon their territory.’ He carried out a ceremony while apologizing to Mother Earth and all creatures and resolving to co-exist and co-prosper with all of creation.

“The next morning when he went to the fields, he was shocked to see that during the night the boars came and used their tusks and snouts to spread organic compost on all of the raised beds. The entire plantation was 9,900 square meters in size and it would take his entire family three whole days to do this work. Moreover, none of the tea trees were harmed.

“Amazingly, since then, for the past twenty-two years, the boars have come every year to help spread compost in the fields.

“In that quiet exchange between farmer and boar, there was a deeper lesson unfolding—one that many Indigenous cultures have understood for generations. It was a reminder that humans are not separate from the natural world, but part of a vast, living family that includes animals, plants, soil, and spirit. The farmer’s gesture of respect and apology seemed to open a space for connection, and in that space, cooperation replaced conflict. What followed felt almost like magic, yet it echoed an ancient truth: when humans approach the natural world with humility and gratitude, the world often responds in kind.”

Maybe it’s time to question—is this really just the way things are? Or is there a beautiful world awaiting our notice.

#222 Forever!

Still sprinkling magical fairy dust

February 22, 2026 15 Comments

“The world could use a new story.”—Thomas Berry

Joyous 2/22! The day Taz and I officially announce this year’s recipients of the Taz Grout 222 Foundation awards!

Per usual, there were countless submissions with countless, beautiful ideas for uplifting consciousness.

Thank you one and all for your creative pitches.

Our mission, as you know, is to amplify projects that rewrite the dream of the modern world from separation, consumption and acquisition to the dream of creativity and self-expression.

We believe the pursuit of happiness comes from human solidarity, simple living, respect for nature and empowerment of all people.

Taz, of course, has a much wider viewpoint and reminds me constantly how important it is to tune into an infinite mindset where nothing is impossible. Otherwise, she says, you keep imagining and creating the same old thing.

To that end, we have chosen two projects this year — alongside a few continuing favorites such as Lovelights, the Ubuntu camps in South Africa, and the local Taz Grout Community Garden.

I am honored and excited to introduce the 2026 recipients of the Taz Grout 222 awards:

The Earth Elders. It doesn’t take a PhD to recognize that the materialist, capitalist story is breaking down. That it’s so obvious and in-your-face is actually great news because it makes it impossible to argue for upholding current paradigms.

We believe it’s time to create a new, more satisfying story. Or in the case of this global nonprofit, a return to an ancient story of being one with all life, with the earth, with each other.

Earth Elders works to preserve indigenous knowledge systems, turning to ancient wisdom for the oh-so-necessary project of global transformation. It honors deep connections with the living earth and anchors in a more abundant and satisfying reality than the one we’re currently hurtling towards.

Not only are the elders creating what they call an earth shield, an initiative that safeguards 52 biocultural territories, but they’re establishing 13 Earth Schools (with more to come) and advancing laws and policies that recognize nature as conscious with rights, spirit and a voice.

In 2013, more than 150 indigenous leaders came together in the Sierra de Santa Marta in Northern Colombia to address the man-made crisis facing the world. After days of spiritual ceremony, they were given clear instructions and a roadmap from Mother Earth.

We are so proud to support that roadmap that guides humanity back into balance with the living world. Not to mention, how thrilled I am that a couple of the indigenous elders offered to say a prayer and give an offering in Taz’s name.

I will be sharing a few anecdotes from the elders in the near future including one that involves a ritual with King Charles and a nearly-extinct white butterfly.

Equal Measure Arts. She had us at donuts. When Leigh Kellis wrote to nominate Equal Measure Arts, a new-ish nonprofit in the Portland, Maine Arts District, she not only sent a fabulous video of her singing, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, but she offered to send donuts.

Turns out, when Leigh’s not serving as Sam Monaco’s sidekick in this innovative recording studio that serves immigrant and low-income kids, she owns a thriving donut shop.

But what really put this pitch over the top is that Equal Measure Arts stands for EVERYTHING the Taz Grout 222 Foundation looks to support: changing consciousness (making music, after all, should be available to everyone), inspiring creativity (this recording studio gives kids a place to tell—er rather sing!—their story) and trusting in the beneficent force that wants to guide and inspire us all.

Monaco, who already owns a solar-powered music studio inside an 1840’s farmhouse, says he was “compelled by a force behind himself” to create this inclusive nonprofit in the Portland Arts District.

To name just a few projects, they’ve already recorded four traditional songs from Maine’s indigenous Wabanaki culture, now featured at the Portland Children’s Museum and launched the careers of several young recording artists including Alma June and the Persian Cats and Adele Edelawit, who describes herself as a coastal cowgirl originally from Ethiopia.

Thank you, Leigh, and just know I plan to fly there later this year to claim those donuts.

Here’s to interrupting our regularly-scheduled programming and to knowing that all things, all people, all worlds are imperturbably connected.

#222 Forever!

Undeterred by the world’s appearance

February 5, 2026 19 Comments

“Believing in a friendly universe is the life jacket that keeps us from sinking into a sea of despair.”—Dwyane Johnson

I’ve about decided that the reason Taz, my cosmic board president, and I started the 222 Foundation is so that I, a mere mortal who still gets swept away by the world’s seeming divisions and polarities, will be yearly reminded of the gazillion people who are out there hatching beautiful ideas of kindness, generosity and creativity.

Yes, our board just reviewed all pitches for the 2026 award that will be announced, as is our custom, on February 22.

And wow! There is a powerful undercurrent of awakening that’s happening beneath the surface, a tsunami of love counteracting the old, unraveling story.

To name just a few: there’s a group in Detroit starting an old growth Giant Sequoia forest, a couple doctors who have turned their backyard into affordable housing, a studio that gives immigrant kids the chance to record their own music, a filmmaker whose documentary of the Hadzabe people in Tanzania’s Yaeda Valley demonstrates the beauty of regeneration and contentment and, yes, endless possibilities,

As one of the Hadzabe leaders said, “Everything I need, I find in my land.”

That’s the secret to everything—knowing that everything we need is always available, right here, right now.

Or as another application reflected, “We never really got kicked out of the garden.”

If we believe we were kicked out (as our society teaches us) we become fearful, our nervous systems get jacked up and we begin defending. We begin fighting. We completely forget who we really are. We settle for a degraded image of ourselves and what we’re capable of.

Ken Wilber once called today’s humans, “flatlanders” because they don’t know the depths of the field to which they are connected. Instead, they see a flimsy, illusory reality dished up by people who, because they don’t know who they are, feel fearful and needful of hoarding, protecting, exploiting.

But that story will never hold in the long run. Mainly because it is NOT true. Any system based on lies is inherently weak.

That’s why Gandhi was able to use his superpower –- what he called ahimsa – to radically alter the course of history.

There is a dynamic life force in each of us. It connects us to all things. It can change all things.

That’s why upgrading consciousness is the mission of the Taz Grout 222 Foundation. We aim to remind humanity of who they are in truth—lovers, creators, beholders of beauty.

Let’s together speak a radically new story, a beautiful, truthful story into existence.

#222 Forever!

Calling in the expert, relying on the pro

January 30, 2026 23 Comments

“Maybe dead tomorrow but alive, gloriously alive, today.”—Robert Jordan

Loved this motto from one of the cafes I enjoyed in Longboat Key last week. And indeed, I do–hail THIS feisty village.

I would never dream of offering acting advice to Meryl Streep. Or giving Yo-Yo Ma tips on playing cello.

Yet, I often think it’s my job to instruct the universe how to show up for me. As if I could possibly know more from my teeny, tiny vantage point than life, glorious life itself.

Why would I try to manipulate or block life’s exquisite expertise? Why would I doubt the pro? I don’t have to set up a schedule for my heart—it beats just fine. Or keep tabs on my lungs.

As the Course says, my purpose stands far beyond my little range.

My little range, as far as I can tell, means opening my aperture to take in all the beauty, the joy, the love in which I swim.

I recently heard this joke:

The shark says to the fish, “Man, the water is cold today.”

And the fish replies, “What is water?”

That’s me so much of the time—swimming in beneficence, yet failing to recognize it, failing to appreciate it, thinking it’s my duty to boss life around.

As many of you know, I wrote a whole book about gratitude. The practice of looking on all things with love, appreciation and open-mindedness seems even more valuable today.

I surrender all judgment and fear to the pro, to the expert.

It’s almost February which means the Taz Grout 222 Foundation is happily designing our annual February 22 (2/22) gift.

So blessed I get to honor my magnanimous daughter who lives with me every day, in my heart, in the ocean of love in which I swim.

Have the best weekend of your life, friends!

#222 Forever!

Staying outside the loop

January 18, 2026 16 Comments

“The revolution isn’t out there. It’s in the 100,000 heartbeats you’ll have today, each one an opportunity to broadcast coherence or chaos into the shared field we all inhabit.”–Nipun Mehta

A question that was posed after last Friday’s post has stuck with me.

Lisa wanted to know how to use the “T’aint so” mindset while witnessing the current violence. I mentioned a couple thoughts in the comment section, but decided this very poignant question deserved a better answer.

I consciously choose to see beyond the violence. My focus is my unshakable belief that every single person has goodness inside them and that things always work out.

To question that unshakeable belief only causes decision fatigue. It causes me to doubt, to worry, to forget to be grateful.

So for me, it’s just a lot easier to focus on the ultimate truth. I don’t need multiple choice. I don’t need decision fatigue.

It might seem like a good use of time—it has certainly become a popular spectator sport—to keep tabs on what’s going on in the outside world. But for me, it only stokes the problem. Never once I have noticed my angst solving any problems.

To be totally transparent, I definitely have moments where I become obsessed, where I watch in sheer horror, but filling my noggin full of poison doesn’t get me where I want to go, doesn’t put me in a space of being the most effective person I can be.

So for me, focusing on just that one thing—gratitude that I live in a loving, perfect universe filled with loving, perfect friends—preserves my energy, my equanimity and keeps the channels open for guidance from the Dude.

Plus as today’s Course lesson points out, “I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing.” So maybe today’s 100,000 heartbeats will resonant and add possibility to the shared field we all inhabit.

Have a great week, friends. I’ll be on the beach in Florida.

#222 Forever!

The call is coming from inside the house

January 16, 2026 32 Comments

“Everyone gets an A+ in the end.”—Elizabeth Gilbert

Last weekend, one of my possibility posses threw a retreat. There wasn’t a leader, an agenda or really any kind of planning except someone offering to bring food.

We spent Saturday and Sunday together dancing, playing games, star-gazing, hot tubbing and letting Spirit take the lead.

It was pure magic.

And the real beauty is we didn’t orchestrate any of it.

Which makes me wonder what would happen if humans could just yank the cord, abandon the rules, give up the programming, forsake all the planning.

If we truly trust that the universe has our back, if we really KNOW how deeply, deeply cherished and loved we are, couldn’t we just relax. Laugh. Dance.

The lessons from Course in Miracles the past few days have encouraged us to recognize that we’re the ones creating the world.

Our thoughts — the ones that encourage fealty to the old story, to the fear, to the limitations — make images that replace true vision.

But like the headline of this post points out, “It’s all coming from inside us.”

What we see out there are images we concocted. And they’re not real. They block us from seeing that the world we live in is actually alive, intelligent and forever supportive.

At the retreat, someone mentioned a woman she knew who spoke great spiritual wisdom. And she did it with two simple words.

T’aint so.

Whenever anyone began discussing a problem –no matter what it was—she’d listen, shake her head and say, “T’aint so.”

Or as another friend said quoting, I think it was Abraham-Hicks, “If you could believe and trust that everything is so very all right, it would immediately and instantly become very all right.”

Glorious Friday. May it be the best weekend yet.

#222 Forever!

Oh, you, who are nobly born

January 9, 2026 11 Comments

“Our way of being brings about either more suffering and fear or more surrender into love.”– Gail Brenner

An illustration from my new book, showing, hopefully, how we’ve trapped ourselves when right next door, we could walk out free.

So my creative project today was drawing an octopus. I’d show you a photo, but you’d likely laugh.

But since you can never express too much creativity, I also decided to write a little blog post, partly so I can wish you the best weekend of your life and also because I mentioned earlier this week a second book worth gushing over.

Turns out, it’s not exactly a book (it WAS recommended at my book group and indeed I did access it through the library), but it’s actually a Sounds True offering called Creating a Culture of Tenderness.

Basically, it’s an interview between Pema Chodron and Father Gregory Boyle who started Homeboy Industries, an inspiring program for former gang members.

Although they disagree about the language (Father Boyle, naturally, calls it God and that word makes Pema, a Buddhist monk, squirm), they’re talking about ultimate truth. The unshakeable truth that each of us (no exceptions) is valuable, decent and whole.

And God or the Infinite Field of Potentiality or Cosmo K, as I’ve been known to call it, is that which returns us to ourselves—the kindness of ourselves, the worthiness of ourselves, the ultimate truth of ourselves.

The ego, of course, has dished up a bunch of crap, telling us there’s something wrong with us or wrong with other people or wrong with the world in general.

As one of the homies says in the discussion, “Your early experiences shape a certain way that you see yourself and that shapes a certain way you see the world.”

Luckily, none of it is true.

And that’s what the Course does—trains us to see ourselves in a different way. Father Doyle joking called it “The Discovery Channel.”

I’ll end with this Buddhist text that Father Boyle often repeats, “Oh nobly born, oh you who are the eternal children of God, of Life Eternal, of the Divine, do not forget who you really are, do not forget your true nature.”

And that, my friends, is what I’ve been repeating to myself all week. I am nobly born.

Hope you recognize this truth, too, as you enjoy the very best weekend of your life.

#222 Forever!

Gusher alert: books, creativity and fun!

January 7, 2026 11 Comments

“We make each other. The interconnectivity between all of us is obvious and unimpeachable.”—Ethan Hawke

I’m in the mood to gush today. I’m reading a couple AMAZING books, I just hung out with friends from the possibility posse and well, as you’ve probably noticed, I often have trouble containing my excitement.

The first book you may have already read. It’s Dan Brown’s The Secret of Secrets.

It’s a 650-page thriller that, get this, centers around my favorite topic—human consciousness. Like all Brown’s books, it’s a page turner. In fact, were in not for my resolution to create something new every day, I’d probably be on my couch right now finishing it.

None of the concepts about consciousness are new to me (I’ve covered many of the same studies here on the blog), but it thrills me that these once-revolutionary ideas are hitting the mainstream. Netflix has already bought the rights to turn the book into a movie.

Brown said in a recent interview that after eight years of gathering data for the book from philosophers, physicists and noetic scientists, he’s come out with a totally different mindset.

“It sounds crazy,” he says, “but I no longer fear death and I believe consciousness is nonlocal.”

I also learned he wasn’t a stranger to manifesting reality. He told Rick Rubin that 20 years ago, he printed out a New York Times bestseller list, photoshopped The Secret of Secrets onto that list on a certain date.

And guess what? That very book, which hadn’t even been written or conceived of in 2005, was #1 on that exact date 20 years later. Reminds me a little of writing my E-Squared affirmation on the beach in Georgia.

A couple other cool things I learned about Dan Brown is that, like me, he plays the piano and he meditates.

Most importantly, he mentioned that the first publisher to whom he pitched his uber-popular Da Vinci Code practically laughed him out of the office.

Moral of this story? Just because one person fails to recognize the beauty and potential of your idea has nothing whatsoever to do with you. Or with the idea’s worth.

In fact, to go back to Ethan Hawke, whose quote from a recent awards ceremony I started this post with, also said this:

“It’s not about the size of the audience. It’s the size of the idea. Ambition includes failure—it’s right next door to success. There are no numbers on the door. You knock, it’s going to open, and you’ll either find a supermodel of your dreams or your mom in curlers.”

But it’s important to keep knocking on those doors.

“Human creativity,” Hawke goes on to say, “is nature manifest in us and our expressions represent our collective mental health. All of us have a charge to do our best, to do the good that we have the power to do.”

So rather than gush about the other book I’m reading (maybe later this week), I’ll close here.

Love you all. SO VERY MUCH!

#222 Forever!

The enchanted yes of imagination

January 4, 2026 22 Comments

“We are born with a mind, open to everything, no fear, no known boundaries, but with each new rule, restriction the mind divides.” – Patti Smith

Buenos dias! Feliz Ano Nuevo! As you can guess, I started Course in Miracles (Lesson #1) again on January 1. My intention, like every year, is true perception.

True perception, according to the Course, has NO LIMITS and is the opposite of how I often perceive the world now.

What could be a better curriculum than that? Seeing without limits, without boundaries, without fear.

I also made a wee side goal of creating something new every day. It doesn’t have to be big or earth-shattering. In fact, rarely will it be. My daily creation can be anything from a quick poem to a doodle on the side of an envelope.

The post you’re reading now is today’s creation.

The germination for this idea started on Christmas.

Rather than purchase a bunch of junk that nobody really wants, we — in my family — decided to handmake all our gifts. Nothing store bought allowed. (See video below)

Kris made ornaments for each person’s pets. Chloe made lip balm from marigolds in her garden. Jim and I painted mini-canvases and made more than 100 tiny gingerbread men.

It was stupendous. The gift was actually making the creations themselves. Demonstrating to ourselves our innate imagination and ability to create.

Everybody needs to know this.

Because if you don’t, you tend to fret and feel that you’re at the mercy of outside forces.

Outside forces insist you need to consume, to watch other people’s creations, to enjoy corporations’ endless offerings in the world.

But that’s not why we’re here. And if we feel beholden to that story, we don’t recognize how powerful we are, how easy it is to imagine something completely different.

I believe it’s the most important thing we could ever learn.

I started 2026 in Bentonville, Arkansas at the amazing Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. I first visited Crystal Bridges in 2014 on a writing assignment. I was sent by an art magazine to cover the museum’s State of the Art exhibit. For a year, museum curators crisscrossed the country, visiting every state searching for working artists that had yet to get the recognition they deserved.

The 100,000-mile journey uncovered 102 artists ranging from Justin Favela and his Lowrider Pinata, a life-size lowrider car made from paper and cardboard, to Andy DuCett’s Mom Booth that featured real moms giving advice.

I’ve returned to Bentonville many times since. And while it wasn’t quite the same start to the year as 2025 where I celebrated on the South African savannah, it provided an amazing high-vibe kickoff to 2026.

Because you can’t NOT think of art in Bentonville, I spontaneously decided to launch this new project right there and then.

Needless to say, I had to manifest all the tools I needed. Paper and pencil were pretty easy to secure. So I now have four pencil sketches (I did two on January 1 for good measure) to my name.

They’re not professional. Very unlikely I’d show them to anyone. But they proved to me that a) I can create whatever I want), b) that whatever I need is always available and c) there’s no reason to succumb to anyone else’s story of what to buy, consume, watch or do.

Here’s to a glorious, blessed New Year filled with love and peace for all.

As John Lennon reminded us, we can have it now if only we want it now.

#222 Forever!!

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Pam Grout is the author of 21 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank and Grow Rich and her latest book, The Ego’s Playbook.