Pam Grout

In good we trust

April 28, 2026 4 Comments

“Give yourself permission to howl even when there’s no moon.”—cartoon I noticed in the funny pages

Once you calibrate to a particular frequency, you start to notice a different set of “facts.” You start to recognize a continuous steam of what some call miracles.

Ever since E-Squared hit the airwaves, my inbox has been jammed with stories that begin with some version of “You are never going to believe this.” And, of course, I expect these sorts of gee-whiz tales at my possibility posses.

But this morning, at my Spanish class—yes, my Spanish class—I heard two tales that defy the accepted, material-bound paradigm in which most humans invest their energy. Thought I’d share:

#1: Carol’s husband, Bo, died of cancer 13 years ago. Not surprisingly, she received many signs from him in the early years including a specific message about some lights she’d installed from a guy at the hardware store she barely knew.

Recently, a FB friend posted about a sign she’d received from her deceased son which inspired Carol to ask Bo if he still, 13 years later, checked in on her and their two sons.

When Bo was alive, he and Carol had a joint checking account with both their names on their checks. After his death, Bo’s name was removed and their checks came with her name only. It had been that way for 13 years.

Soon after she specifically asked whether or not he was still checking on them, the bank sent new checks that had both their names.

#2: The other story came from Karen, our espanol maestra (teacher) who also happens to be a speech pathologist. She mentioned to one of her clients that she really wanted to go to Italy. The client, who happened to be a practicing Buddhist told her to forget the last part of the sentence that included, “but I can’t afford it.”

Instead, the client advised, to ask sincerely for the trip to Italy while chanting “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.”

Within a few days, an unexpected check from some continuing education fund Karen knew nothing about landed in her mailbox. It was for $2500, the exact amount she needed for a trip to Italy.

So, yes, we may have been practicing Spanish, but we were also calibrating to a frequency of gratitude and truth and the recognition, Horatio, “that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy.”

#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.

It’s just so easy!

April 24, 2026 15 Comments

“If you’re not in awe every moment of your life, you’re just not paying attention.”–Cortland Dahl

Happy best-Friday of your life!

I got a kick out of this coffee sleeve I spotted in Abilene.

So I’m off on another girlfriend’s getaway, but, before I go, I wanted to say howdy to all my besties here on the blog.

And to rave once again about my long-standing love affair with ServiceSpace.

I’ve written about this all-volunteer, concensus-defying organization before. I went with them to Gandhi’s ashram a couple years ago. The 222 Foundation chose them as its recipient in 2022. And I’ve participated in several of their amazing, life-changing pods.

Most recently, I tuned into their Born to Flourish pod. And because I’m a gusher and LOVE to ”share my toys,” as I like to say, here are just a couple quick things I picked up:

The pod was built around the scientific work of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin. Since I’m often described as “woo-woo through and through,” it’s rewarding to discover research the proves what I like to gush about.

For example, joy is our natural state. In an experiment with babies, neuroscientist Richie Davidson, director of the Center for Healthy Minds, found that 100 percent of little humans who had yet to master “the ways of the world” chose love. Every single one.

Other experiments proved that one person can change an energy field, that mindfulness doesn’t take years of living in an ashram and because love, connection and kindness IS our natural state, it only requires a tiny space for something truer to come through.

First step is recognizing that thoughts are interpretations, not objective truth. Thanks to a lifetime of training our minds to scan for what’s going wrong, we tend to believe what our eyes show us. But it’s always interpretation. And there’s always something greater going on.

Have a great weekend, friends! I love you to the moon and back.

#222 Forever!

First, nail the frequency

April 14, 2026 30 Comments

“It’s so close we don’t see it, so easy we don’t believe it.”—Cortland Dahl

Four of us from the possibility posse attended an Abraham-Hicks workshop in Kansas City last weekend. We made a whole weekend of it. We got an Airbnb, tromped around the Country Club Plaza and dined at fabulous restaurants.

And while Esther said a lot of inspiring things during this two-day event, the best part for me was relishing in the frequency, the joy, the possibility.

That’s really the trick to everything. Esther called it calibrating, finding that sweet spot where you’re open, available, where life can show up and show off.

And life does show off—when you’re not marinating in grievances.

As the quote I led off with suggests, “The Divine Buzz is always, always, always (now I sound like Esther) here. And the reason this sounds far-fetched is only because we don’t believe it. We secretly believe other bumper sticker slogans like “life sucks.”

Or this recent meme that caused me to chuckle: “I was told there would be a handbasket.”

So, yes, we can certainly mute the signal. Or as Esther said, “hit the brakes by staring at ‘what is.’”

But we can also place our attention on the limitless frequency of Truth and let life figure out the details, the timing, the how.

Have a joyous Tuesday! #222 Forever!

Catching joy as it flies by

April 3, 2026 21 Comments

“The world of reason must be a lonely place.”—Luis Alberto Urrea

I walked with a fox this morning. Wasn’t even 8 a.m. before the first of today’s gifts presented itself to me.

The fox kept its distance, of course, but we traversed the same path for at least three blocks.

This magical experience brought to mind Kurt Vonnegut’s observation that we owe it to our fellow humanoids to say, “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is?”

How often do I fail to notice all the nice things that cross my path in a day, let alone bring them to the attention of someone I love.

Rather than point out problems, I plan to spend this day, this weekend, this life pointing out all the things that are going right.

I notice when I focus on things I don’t love, it hurts. It literally hurts me–my attitude, my energy field, even my body. It turns me into a caricature of my true self.

Love is our natural state, the realest of real.

And any other seeming reality can’t, in the end, last. Because, well, it isn’t real. It isn’t true.

So once again, my precious friends and readers and lovers, I urge you to claim today’s many gifts. And, of course, to enjoy the most stupendous, the most astonishing weekend of your life.

#222 Forever!

An avalanche of astonishment

March 28, 2026 45 Comments

“The luminous and shocking beauty of the everyday is something I try to remain alert to, if only as an antidote to the chronic disenchantment that seems to surround everything these days.”—Nick Cave

Although I didn’t know it at the time, the reason the experiments in E-Squared worked so beautifully is because well, they can’t NOT work.

Gifts, winks, nods from the beneficent universe show up every single day. What the E-Squared experiments did was encourage readers to pay attention. The 48-hour experiments tricked us into temporarily shifting our focus from “oh-no” to “wow.”

Luis Alberto Urrea, the prolific Mexican-American writer and poet, was here in Lawrence this week. I loved him and his wife, Cinderella (yes, that’s her real name), SO MUCH.

A story he told about the medicine women he met while researching his amazing novel, The Hummingbird’s Daughter, brought everything into focus for me.

Every day, the shamans told him, is your birthday. Yes, you typically celebrate it once a year. However, all day, every day you’re being sent gifts.

We’re mostly blind to this avalanche of astonishment because we’re busy wanting something else—say, more followers, a skinnier body, a higher-paying job.

The world, the medicine women pointed out, never stops talking to us, never stops sending messages. We don’t always get them because, well, we’ve built a lot of walls.

The gifts aren’t always huge—maybe a ladybug or making authentic eye contact with a stranger or the majestic sky ballet of a pair of hawks overhead.

But whether you’re paying attention or not, the gifts are always there. As Urrea said, “We live in paradise and we forgot.”

Yes, I still take umbrage at things happening out there in the world. And you better believe I’m heading to a–let’s just call it a “No Kings” party– later today. But in the meantime, I plan to celebrate today’s birthday, to bring back love notes about my endless gifts.

#222 Forever!

Why I broke up with Dr. Google

March 14, 2026 14 Comments

“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!

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

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!