Blog – Page 2 – Pam Grout

In love with life

July 15, 2026 33 Comments

“The field doesn’t need to be reached or earned. It needs only to be recognized.”—Cynthia Li

I spent last week in the mountains of Colorado. At dinner, on our first night there, the chef presented us with a delightful and unexpected amuse-bouche.

Translated from French, it means “an amusement for your mouth.” They’re small, whimsical culinary creations, never listed on the menu. Instead, an amuse-bouche is a free gift from the chef to a) make you feel special and b) to show off his or her talents.

All day, every day, I notice, life presents me with amuse-bouches, unexpected little joys that cost me nothing and showcase its bounty.

That’s the whole premise of the A.A. 2.0 program that I showcased in Thank and Grow Rich: a 30-day Experiment in Shameless Gratitude and Unabashed Joy.

I still practice it every single morning. When you start looking for treasure (because, well, your possibility posse is waiting to hear the brand new things you’re grateful for), amuse-bouches pop up everywhere.

When you put on the magic hat of gratitude, the gifts become too many to list.

I almost had to pinch myself on this trip to Colorado. The number of improbable and wonderous amuse-bouches began multiplying like Mickey’s broom in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice: the night sky without man-made light (I’d forgotten how many stars there are), the tiny adaptions of flowers above the tree line, the stunning beauty of mountain lakes, meeting just the right people giving just the right restaurant recommendations at just the right time.

I’ll close with an amuse-bouche shared yesterday by my Spanish maestra. Thanks to an early freeze, the peach trees on her farm lost their blossoms, taking all hope of a summer crop.

One evening last week, she noticed her mouth watering. She really, really, really wanted a big, fat, juicy durazno (that’s peach in Espanol), but, hey, her crop had failed and she lives in the country, miles from a grocery store. However, when she walked outside to look at the moon, there, on a branch of the peach tree nearest her house, hung a single, big, fat, juicy peach.

Did she summon it with her desire? Or was it an amuse-bouche lovingly presented by the creator of all magic?

#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.

Nothing taken for granted

July 8, 2026 26 Comments

“It is paradise here, if you have eyes to see and ears to hear.”—Jedidiah Jenkins

Wow! You guys blew me away with all your inspiring, encouraging comments. Thank you! SO MUCH!

I read and will consider every word as I commence on this exciting, new writing journey, knowing that, in the end, the muses always get the last word.

Even though I wrote an entire book on gratitude, I learned during the opening weeks of the World Cup that I still take way too many things for granted.

Take my hometown, for example. While I certainly include many of its assets on my daily list of amazing awesomeness, I didn’t realize how much I overlook until all these media outlets from all over the world started praising little old Lawrence, Kansas. The ultimate compliment, mentioned by many of the journalists, was “I could live here.”

I already appreciated that we Lawrencians are radically inclusive and open to everyone. And that we have scores of musician and artist transplants from California to New York and that the southwest corner of our Meadowbrook Apartments is considered by Google Earth to be the center of the earth.**

And I knew beat poet William Burroughs chose to live here longer than he lived anywhere and that our 100 Good Women (an organization that helps anybody with anything) raises funds with an annual Mrs. Roper walk.

For those who forgot Helen Roper from Three’s Company, think colorful caftans and over-sized costume jewelry on a rousing bar hop down our equally-colorful, historic downtown.

Though I regularly wrote travel articles for the very publications that praised our town, it never occurred to me to sing my own hometown’s praises. Like Byron Katie said yesterday, “the ego tries to talk us out of a perfect life.”

So, thank you universe for so clearly pointing out that, no matter how appreciative I think I am, there is always room for more gratitude, more enchantment.

Every single flower, tree and bumblebee is a gift to me. Every grin, every face, every living thing with which I share this wonderful world — thank you Louis Armstrong — is worth proclaiming huzzah from the tippy top of Mount Oread (yes, we even have a mini-mountain here).

So here’s to embracing it all and never again missing life’s gorgeous moments and unending gifts.

#222 Forever!

**The childhood bedroom of Brian McClendon, the co-inventor of Google Earth lived there (at the center of the earth) from the time he was four through age 18.

An uprising of the heart

July 3, 2026 165 Comments

“In grace you see a light that covers all the world in love.”—A Course in Miracles

My daily mandala created from blossoms in my yard.

You may have noticed an uptick in the number of posts from me this week. I’m gearing up for my next writing project which requires me to tune in, to listen, to focus daily.

And because I like to celebrate exciting news with my peeps — that’s you, by the way — I’ve been inspired to share some of the ideas that are currently pouring through.

I’m thinking a lot about what I’m calling reality fields. Different dimensions that exist all at the same time. That’s why you notice some people spending all their energy on grievances (things that need to be fixed or changed) and others that live in utter amazement and gratitude. Both, of course, exist.

Each of us has a direct influence on the reality field we inhabit.

Since I’m no longer interested in manifesting “things” (that’s the easiest trick in the book), I’m focusing on expanding reality fields that show off the aliveness and intelligence in which we all swim. Hundred monkeys is happening, folks.

Among other things, I’m curating a book of stories about things we once believed were impossible that are now ordinary as pie. I’ve collected a whole library of “You are never going to believe this” tales.

I’m hoping in the comments section below, you’ll take the time to comment on whether you’d prefer a book of experiments (ways to experience in real time a different reality field) or a compendium of miracles stories that also shift us into a new reality field.

Speaking of reality fields, we, here in Lawrence, Kansas have created a beautiful reality field of love with the Algerian World Cup team that we hosted. Our little college town of less than 100,000 has been recognized by CNN, BBC, ABC, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Guardian, USA Today, Sen Adam Kinzinger’s Sunday good news, Germany’s Die Zeit, Algerian newspapers and Travel and Leisure.

Either way, I’m excited to share the love blossoming all around us.

#222 Forever!

And, oh yes, have the absolutely best Fourth of July weekend of your life.

Impossible you say?

July 1, 2026 28 Comments

“Beliefs change the math about what is possible and probable,”– Shawn Achor

In October 1903, the New York Times declared that it would take from one million to 10 million years for men to build a machine that could fly. They interviewed notable engineers, scientists and others who had worked and reworked the formulas only to conclude that such a feat was simply not possible.

Exactly 69 days later, Orville and Wilbur Wright took off in the first engine-powered, heavier-than-air machine they called the Wright Flyer.

And if that impossible thing suddenly became possible, it’s worth examining other impossibilities we’ve long believed.

We live in an exciting, rapidly-changing time. The old, confining reality is dissolving before our very eyes. And the more we open ourselves to stories and beliefs that used to be impossible, that don’t fit into old boxes anymore, the bigger our playground becomes.

The model we’ve invested in for the last several thousand years is a tiny compression of the inconceivably vast and grand reality in which we live. It’s a tiny sliver of the full spectrum of potentiality.

And I, for one, refuse to invest any more energy in anything someone else deemed impossible.

#222 Forever!

A trio of itty-bitty, most extraordinary reminders

June 29, 2026 19 Comments

“We are in our daily lives reflections of what we worship.” — Edgar Cayce

My dad was a Methodist minister which meant I spent most Sunday mornings in church.

Far as I could tell, this weekly gathering served to remind the congregation what we learned last week and the week before that.

To this day, I still appreciate little nudges that help me recapture reality as it truly is. Such as:

Love is always the most stable force. To paraphrase a quote my dad used to say, two or more gathered in love is a stronger energy force than 10,000 believing in fear. If life were a tug-of-war (which some folks believe it is), two energy fields holding love can pull ten thousand over the line.

The world is infinite and offers more possibilities than I could ever begin to imagine. Anytime I rail against anything, I am forgetting that said thing (say injustice, for example) is one tiny, temporary potentiality among the literally unlimited other superpositions.

The world has regenerative powers. And even one person holding that love frequency influences the whole. I wrote about the 4-minute mile rule in one of my books. Once one person does it, others realize they can do it, too. It’s not unusual at Joe Dispenza’s gatherings for one person, wheelchair bound for years, to get up and walk. And once that happens, often others, also in wheelchairs, stand and walk, too.

So that’s my Monday sermon! Here’s to holding the love frequency while enjoying and savoring the heck out of your week.

#222 Forever!

Through a wider lens

June 23, 2026 23 Comments

“You are cared for by the universe beyond that which you can measure or understand right now.”—Regina Dawn Akers

Salaam Shabbi!

That may not be spelled right, but that’s what we’re saying these days in Lawrence, Kansas as we host the Algerian World Cup team. Between non-stop street parties, our marching band learning the Algerian national anthem and our quaint little downtown festooning itself in green and red, we’ve managed to create quite a stir. Stan Herd, our local crop artist, even created a ½-acre Algerian flag.

So in honor of last night’s victory of Les Fennecs (our newly-adopted team), I thought I’d take a moment to share with you, my beloved readers, a couple stories that defy the typical fear nonsense kicked up by our crazy egos.

For example, our culture seems to think making a profit should always take precedence, that creating capital is the end-all-be all.

As of last February, a café in Minneapolis has turned that restrictive system on its head. The owner of Post Modern Times decided it would no longer operate as a profit-based business. From that point on, it became a free and donation-based restaurant. While some 40 percent of its patrons don’t donate, the economic equality created with this new model has caused the restaurant to thrive, well beyond its previous levels.

In France, a group of businesses are opening their offices to homeless people in the evenings when they’re not using them. Called the Bureaux du Coeur (“Offices of the Heart”), the non-profit was started by business leaders who believe economic activity should serve society. What a concept!

Together with social service agencies, the now-national movement is consistently described as life-changing. Not only do participants find a sense of belonging (they often stay for coffee when the staff arrives), but old stereotypes about homelessness have been blown to smithereens.

Speaking of stereotypes, I also loved the story about a prison in Washington whose inmates are now rehabilitating endangered butterflies.

So I’ll sign off today with this question: “What beliefs do you have that might be restricting new possibilities?”

Happy Tuesday!

#222 Forever!

A little shot of dopamine for your inbox

June 5, 2026 15 Comments

“My interest had grown thin in what the world had to offer.”—Bob Roth

Azul and I at a baseball game last summer.

Happiest of Fridays, my fine-feathered friends.

While I may be the last .05 percent that still takes the local newspaper (mostly because I dig doing the puzzles), I happened to notice today’s “Speed Bump” cartoon.

In it, a little chicken was looking at his fellow chicken who was huge with rage. The angry chicken was literally emanating steam. In the cartoon bubble, the little chicken looks over and says, “I told you not to look at the news.”

The “news” I like writing about tells a different story. In fact, I’ve been visualizing a world where all newspapers and national broadcasts cover nothing but kindness, connection and miracles. In other words, the real facts about the world, the still-present love happening underneath the contradictions our fear and jacked-up-nervous systems have introduced into the field.

Can you imagine the resulting peace and possibilities from such a feed?

According to the Course, we have wasted many, many years on these senseless whims and quaint absurdities.

So here are a couple news items that speak to me:

The U.S. World Cup soccer coach runs every team he’s ever led according to “energia universal,” a higher form of energy that he believes people can connect with and harness. Mauricio Pochettino always keeps a box of lemons in his office and in his teams’ locker rooms.

“I believe 100 percent that lemons pull out negative energy,” he says.

He religiously changes out the lemons every 10 days. He has also been known to insist players walk on hot coals, an exercise that demonstrates the power of the mind over the body and he often chooses his roster according to players’ auras, not their skills.

News item #2 happened to moi last night. Ever since Taz worked with the Spanish-speaking families of Big Brothers/Big Sisters, I’ve been a Big to my Little, Azul.

Last night, I volunteered at a BBBS fundraiser that pitted 10 chefs, who each brought their best dish and a specially-crafted cocktail, to be judged and chosen as winners by the audience.

Called Plates and Pours, this fun event also featured a video where a dozen or so Littles who are now grown up were interviewed about their relationship with their Bigs. I was casually watching when I was startled to see a picture of my mom on the screen who was posing with her Little, Courtney who, of course, I’ve known since she was small.

Courtney in the video mentioned that when she met Shirley, my mom, her mom was addicted to drugs and her dad, an alcoholic, had abandoned her.

She raved about the difference my mom made in her life. I’m used to getting fun little signs from Taz, but this was special because it came from my mom who died the same year.

In the video, most of the Bigs were sitting next to their grownup Littles and, in the end, they each hugged. My mom, who is no longer here in the physical, couldn’t hug Courtney, but the long-term effects (she’s now a successful wife and mom herself) are still very much present.

Have a fab weekend, friends!

#222 Forever!

Possibilities you might never have imagined

May 29, 2026 22 Comments

“It is urgent to live enchanted.”—Valter hugo mae

This incredible Luna Moth showed up the other night while I was enjoying dinner al fresco in my back yard.

Every day, the Course in Miracles asks me to forgive.

Sometimes that’s easy.

Other times, I prefer gripping tightly to my stories. There’s a certain perverse satisfaction in believing something needs to change, thinking someone did me dirty.

It’s intoxicating at times to be a victim, to dislike certain events, to believe those people out there are wrong, wrong, wrong.

Either way, I know that when I don’t forgive, my life energy becomes stuck in destructive loops.

And when I do choose to surrender my stories of good and evil, right and wrong, my energy gets a bright and shiny chance to flow in new vibrant and nourishing directions.

I know I don’t need to remind you, but because it’s my custom, I hereby urge you to go out and have the very best weekend of your life.

#222 Forever!

From whence dost thou input hail?

May 22, 2026 35 Comments

“There’s a lot more consciousness out there than what we’re seeing.”—Michael Pollan

Happy Friday, folks! Just wanted to drop in with a question I’ve been pondering of late.

In simpler English (had to show off my Olde English skills in the headline), I’m asking myself, what is the source of my information? Where am I getting the “facts” I’m using to make decisions?

I notice when I use my phone or FB or any type of input that comes from a marketing point of view, subtle though it may be, it creates unwanted ripples in the field of light and love to which I’ve committed. It suggests something is missing.

The biggest disturbance is a false belief that there is something outside of me that knows more about what I need than I do. Outside inputs, I notice, always come with strings, with a different presumption than the one offered by my Source. My Source knows only love, infinite possibility, expansion, beauty.

Outside inputs always poo-poo those truths. There’s something wrong, those outside inputs say. There’s something else you need. You better worry.

My Source, the one I prefer conferring with each morning, delivers a more-pleasing narrative. It tells me that anything that’s not love is not true. Anything that smacks of limitation is being used to manipulate me, to take me away from this field of light in which I live and move and have my being.

So here are a couple inputs that defy what outside sources deliver:

The first is personal. As y’all know, I don’t believe in physical death or separation. All inputs I trust keep me connected to my daughter. The most recent example comes from PBS Kids that recently introduced a new muppett that just happens to be a hedgehog, happens to be from Kansas and happens to have the goal of seeking joy, adventure and fun. Go Taz!
The second is from a new reader of E-Squared whose elderly dachshund recently passed. She was doing one of the experiments in the book and decided she’d manifest a rose quartz. She had just printed out a photo of her dear Al (the beloved dachshund) when no sooner did a friend show up with a rose quartz with, get this, a slice in it to hold a photograph.

Stories like this are the only inputs I desire. How about you?

#222 Forever!

In good we trust

April 28, 2026 22 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

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In love with life

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Nothing taken for granted

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An uprising of the heart

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Impossible you say?

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A trio of itty-bitty, most extraordinary reminders

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Through a wider lens

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A little shot of dopamine for your inbox

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Possibilities you might never have imagined

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From whence dost thou input hail?

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In good we trust

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