Pam Grout

The Dude’s watch list

September 6, 2024 33 Comments

“Transcendent moments of awe change forever how we experience life and the world.”– John Milton

I was going to call this post “the Freaky Math of Gratitude” and then I remembered I wrote one a few years ago called exactly that.

That post, if I must say so myself, made an excellent point so I’ll include it (the original) below for a bit more oomph to the idea I’m about to share.

Unlike math formulas, gratitude doesn’t work in a linear fashion. It doesn’t add up the same way as the simple 2+2, 5 x 7 equations we learned in grade school.

Because it works on many dimensions and because it’s powered by love, it multiplies in a way rationalists can’t understand. Heck, I’m not even a rationalist and I don’t understand how blessing some tiny fragment of a perceived problem causes it to magically transform.

For example, let’s say I only slept 2 hours last night. When I say “thank you” for those two hours instead of bemoaning the other six I’ve been trained I also need, I feel less tired. Try it. Let me know how it works.

The observer effect, a well-known and undebatable principle in physics, addresses the bizarre phenomenon in which the act of observation alters the behavior of that which is being observed.

All matter is wave-like and because particles exist in multiple states simultaneously, the position (the observation) I choose collapses that reality into a definite state. So I can either collapse the gratitude state (and feel rested) or I can collapse the “aint-it-awful” state in which I need more Z’s. Both waves, always available.

The Course in Miracles says that, even our “wretched illusions” (that’s a bit harsh, if you ask me) contain a hidden spark of beauty. Which is where gratitude comes in. It ignites that itty-bitty spark of beauty.

I’m a fan of itty-bitty. Love that it only takes “a mustard seed.” Mustard seeds are so small you practically need a magnifying glass to see them.

Because our dominant paradigm is so hepped up on “more, more, more,” “the bigger the better,” it totally overlooks the immense power of a tiny idea whose time has come.

Lots of regenerative, loving ideas are coming, my friends. And they all start with that tiny mustard seed of gratitude.

Here’s to having the very best weekend of your life! And if you’re so inclined, read on for the last time I wrote about the freaky math of gratitude. #222 Forever!

“I will give thanks to you forever and with my whole heart.”—Book of Psalms

Between the above quote and the story I’m about to tell, you can probably surmise that I went to church yesterday. A dear friend joined the Unity church here in town so, of course, I went to cheer her on. That’s what possibility posses do—celebrate each other for any and all spiritual leaps. Go team!

The speaker at the church service reminded us of the Bible story of the fish and loaves. It happens to be a favorite of mine because its math equation doesn’t add up to what we consider “normal, scientific reality.”

5+2=5000 is not an equation that computes for most of us. It doesn’t match what we were taught in school. Every reasonable, educated adult knows that five loaves and two fish do not feed 5000 people. But that’s only because, alongside math, we were taught the erroneous subject of scarcity and limitation.

When you use the equation of gratitude, when you add blessings to “math problems,” the resulting sums are skewed in your favor. Gratitude compounds and expands everything – even material things.

Jesus and his 12 disciples took 7 measly items (5 loaves and 2 fish) and, by blessing them, by giving gratitude for them, grew their larder into a feast for 5000.

Every word or thought or even breath of gratitude multiplies whatever you have. It renders old school math problems irrelevant. It adds up to truth and the unfathomable math of miracles.

I know I repeat this over and over and over. (I figure I can get away with it because it happens to be Thanksgiving week here in the United States.) Counting blessings turns even the tiniest of things into monster-size blessings, abundance and, yes, miracles that defy all laws of mathematics. Happiest of holidays, my friends!

#222 forever!

Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest book, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World).

Of course, I’d love to

August 23, 2024 27 Comments

“I’m amazed that I can make up such amazing stuff.”—Willie Nelson

I failed to add this to my earlier post, so for those who are interested………

I’ve written about Willie Nelson before—how he credited gratitude with turning his whole career around. Last weekend, I finished his latest book—Energy Follows Thought. I mean, how can I resist a title like that?

He believes, like I do, that our lives are created out of the things we place our attention upon. As we all know, there’s an awful lot of possibilities to choose from.

And more often than we care to admit, we fail to put our attention upon ease, grace, peace and other desirable items from the universal jukebox.

At last week’s P.P. (possibility posse), my friend mentioned an afternoon she blew by obsessing about the difficulty of some technological glitch that needed to be fixed on her website. After several hours of trying, she remembered. “Oh, I have a personal assistant. Maybe she can figure it out.”

She called the P.A. who promptly answered, “Of course, I’d love to!”

Which inspired me to write this post, mostly to remind myself (after all, that’s why I write them) that the Dude ALWAYS gives the same answer. “Of course, I’d love to.”

“It is my great pleasure to show you in three-dimensional, living color the out-picturing of whatever you choose to focus upon.”

Our part? Get on the right frequency and, as J.C. pointed out, “the fish will jump into the boat.”

Have the most incredible, interesting and fun weekend of your life. #222 Forever!!

With a little help from my friends

August 20, 2024 37 Comments

“Your heart and my heart are very, very old friends.”–Hafiz

Happy Tuesday, beloveds! Thought I’d pop in today to share a couple things, all of which involve beautiful connections.

The first is a message from Taz who reminded me this morning that who I am–who we all are–is far greater than we think. She wanted me to know that each of us is WAY MORE wise, kind and joined together than we could ever imagine.

Our bodies which occupy…oh, I don’t know?…99 percent of our attention?…are temporary tools we have the privilege of using for a short while. Sorta like a hammer. But we should never forget they’re not the whole tool box.

I also want to give props to all of you who email me the most amazing things—from pictures of hedgehog feather dusters to amazing manifestation stories to praise for my words that sometimes make me blush, but always remind me why I write and why it’s so important to use our given “tools” to shine for the divine.

Yesterday, a filmmaker I met through Mike Dooley sent me an inspiring video of an otter who, after getting the attention of a human who was able to rescue his trapped mate, swam back to him and presented him with a thank you gift of a rock. An otter gave a human a tangible thank you gift!!!!! Maybe I can figure out how to share that here.

The last connection I want to highlight is a couple friends who are throwing a big party/concert/love fest for the Taz Grout 222 Foundation. It’s on September 22 at Unity Village outside Kansas City. If any of you are in the area (or if you feel like driving/flying/hot air ballooning in), please join us. I’ll be presenting along with Karen Drucker and Greg Tamblyn. They’ll be singing. I’ll just be dancing and celebrating and sharing a few thoughts on inner guidance and spacious aliveness.

Karen Drucker, whose music and words embolden us to forever embrace the wonders of life, is giving a retreat the weekend before so why not come for the whole three days? You can get more info here.

Greg Tamblyn, who might be the funniest singer alive (he’s also profound as Gandhi), is hosting a couple trips to Ireland. I keep trying to sign up, but they book up so fast that a couple years ago when four friends and I intended to go we ended up with a band we’d never ever heard of, but absolutely LOVED. Grace is funny that way. There’s more info here.

So that’s it for today, except for this final thought: You are part of an inscrutable love that’s all-encompassing and more real and vast than you’ll ever know while swinging the hammer.

#222 Forever!

Rewilding the mind

July 30, 2024 25 Comments

“If not for reverence, if not for wonder, why have we come here?”–Raffi

My guy, Alby, once described Mozart’s music as so pure and so ever-present in the universe that it was simply waiting to be plucked out by someone with a sympathetic ear.

That’s my overarching goal these days—to listen to the universe with a sympathetic ear. To hear, not with the dirty bathwater of my brain, but with the music that’s ever-present in the universe. I do this mainly by connecting to nature.

Truth is I’ve always been connected to nature (so are you, we all are), but because we pay so much attention to other things, we rarely notice. We focus on the file cabinet in our brain where we store grievances and beliefs that we just know are absolute fact.

The Course in Miracles is all about rewiring the mind—not the brain. The brain is basically a receiving device that, as I said, keeps files from the past. It superimposes old stories, old judgements on “the now.”

“The now,” for anyone who takes time to notice, is brimming with possibility. It hasn’t yet selected one out of the world’s gazillion trillion superpositions and named it fact. It hasn’t discarded all that’s possible for that one measly superposition.

True guidance doesn’t come from the brain, doesn’t rely on the three-pound blob of grey matter that plays nothing but old tunes from the jukebox of the past. The brain stores yesterday, ideas that were conjured up when we were two or ten or twenty-one.

My intention is to discard yesterday as any kind of guidance for today. And to recognize that the sights my brain shows me are nothing but a catalog of what used to be.

We might think our eyes show us the world as it is. But it’s been proven over and over again, that our eyes, mandated by the file cabinet of grievances called the brain, show us but a depiction of reality that we’ve long thought was true, but actually isn’t. It shows us a limited, inaccurate view of the world that’s so far from truth we can only laugh when we finally see it.

Rather than buy into the brain’s evaluation of good/bad, right/wrong and trust its depiction of the world, I prefer to close my eyes and FEEL the universe, to listen to the music of the spheres.

Have a stellar week, oh joyous ones.

Life is kinda stunning when you quit trusting the brain’s faulty wiring and listen, like Einstein said, with a sympathetic ear.

#222 Forever!

Not falling for the illlusion

July 25, 2024 34 Comments

“I feel duty-bound to unearth, enhance and promote the world’s beautiful things, rather than obsess, worry and agitate over the worst of things.”—Nick Cave

It’s a curious thing, being here on this star hurtling through space.

And even more puzzling is that we humans, as we go about our day to day lives, completely overlook the one thing that never changes. We wholly ignore the one thing that can never be extinguished.

And by that I mean the inner peace, the inner light that is the inheritance of each and every one of us.

Instead, we turn our attention to events and situations that change on the daily. Heck, at the speed we’re all moving now, distractions and circumstances change by the hour, like the soup of the moment I once enjoyed at London’s Globe Theatre.

I suppose it makes sense that we would take the inseverable connection for granted, that we would disregard the light and love that resides undisturbed within us because, well, it’s always here, it never wavers.

Spirituality, rather than being a requirement that good people must pursue, simply means shifting our attention from the always-changing to the reality that never does.

It’s so simple that most of us miss it.

The Course in Miracles, my spiritual go-to, continually asks me for a deep relinquishment of everything that clutters up my mind.

So when I begin obsessing about this little thing or notice a slight edge of anxiety waving at me from the sidelines, I simply ask myself, “What does that really have to do with me?”

Reality—true reality—knows nothing of those things.

Love is the only thing that can ever really happen.

I wish you all good cheer on this glorious summer Thursday. And a quick return to the peace of mind, the state of love, the only reality that’s well, real.

#222 Forever

Make way for miracles

July 18, 2024 48 Comments

“Hold your own victory parades, award your own medals of honor.”—James Hillman

My dear friend Diane (who also submitted one of the all-time best selfies during the E-Cubed Selfie Challenge**) sent an email yesterday inquiring where I’ve been.

So, Diane, the answer which I’ll share with you and everyone else who hangs out at this party known as a blog, is I’ve been traveling.

I’ve been in the U.K. with my sister experiencing miracle after miracle after miracle. The Course tells us that if miracles aren’t happening on the daily something has gone wrong. Our perceptions are askew, our judgments are blocking our natural state of happiness.

Miracles, as far as I’m concerned don’t have to be ginormous (for example, five moonflowers in my garden popped open last night), but I’m going to share a couple biggies from my two weeks away. I could literally share 3000.

First, we had a magical, perfect-in-every-way day at Wimbledon, eventually sitting not far from the Royal Box on Centre Court. I hadn’t put this on any vision board. In fact, I’m not sure I even knew the famous tennis tournament was going on during my holiday, as the Brits call it.

But because I grew up in a tennis family (I once wrote an article that started with something like, “Not being able to play tennis in my family was like not being able to moonwalk in Michael Jackson’s family.”) Wimbledon is in my consciousness, in my thoughts. And most importantly, I hadn’t put going to Wimbledon in the “that’s not possible” box.

We all have two boxes. There’s the “of course, I can go to the grocery store, the local bar, the bank.” And then there’s the “that’s not possible” box.” At this point in my life, I’m happy to report there is very little left in my ‘that’s not possible” box. I’ve witnessed way too many “impossible” things.

In fact, someone recently sent me a picture of the pair of peacocks that marched in front of her suburban home after she made the intention to see one.

The second miracle involves my beloved Taz. The two of us traveled to London together at least twice. One time, in fact, we stayed in Room 222 at the Langham Hotel.

This time, my sis and I rented an Airbnb in Cookham, a short train ride from London. We loved this little town on the Thames SO MUCH that we only ventured into the big city one day, opting to catch a show in the West End. The name of the show? 2:22: A Ghost Story.

The last miracle I’m going to share because well, I’m sure you have other things to do than read a recounting of what I told my possibility posse was one perfect day after another, is that when I got home, an unexpected payment for a workshop I did years ago landed in my bank account. And well duh! It was the exact amount I’d spent during my amazingly awesome two weeks abroad.

If you build it—or rather if you don’t put something in the “that’s not possible box.”—it will come.

I love and appreciate you all SO MUCH and if you feel so inclined, I’d love to read some of your own recent miracles in the comments section below.

**The E3 Selfie Challenge encouraged readers to visualize their intentions in a selfie. Diane’s intention, to meet Al Pacino, included her and the handsome actor. Diane’s husband Marty even snapped the photo.

#222 Forever

Outside the normal boundaries

June 26, 2024 48 Comments

“Find the place inside yourself where nothing is impossible.”—Deepak Chopra

I was recently reminded of this story about Joan of Arc. The King of France, curious about the peasant girl’s unwavering conviction, asked why everybody doesn’t hear the voice that so clearly guided her.

She was quick to reply that the voice she hears is available to everyone. It’s just that most people don’t listen.

Listening is a priority for me. Thankfully, I haven’t gotten orders to lead a nation or to be a martyr, but I do recognize that I’ve been given a purpose. It’s nothing lofty or even that important to anyone but me. But over and over, I’m instructed that my purpose is to love the world.

Notice that’s different than trying to save the world or change the world. I’m simply guided to notice all the remarkable blessings this world offers, to say good morning to the sun, to thank it for making all this possible.

One of two of today’s Course reviews tells me “I am entrusted with the gifts of God.” So I reckon I can either ignore these gifts or I can do everything within my power to notice and celebrate their ever-flowing nature.

When I attune myself just a slight turn to the right or the left, I see, as the Course says, “only the loving and the lovable.”

So in this frenetic political season, when everyone’s promising to change and/or save the world, my mission remains the same. To love the world. To appreciate its countless gifts.

And to trust that when enough of us free our vision from the limits of the body’s eyes, anything that’s not love will be displaced with the real deal.

Happy Wednesday, all you beautiful people. I know you will delight in this gorgeous day!

#222 Forever! Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest book, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World)

Mugged by too much content

June 20, 2024 32 Comments

“Strike the pose and something is bound to happen.”—Willem Dafoe

In today’s world, we are bombarded with content. We’re flooded with a whirlpool of mostly irrelevant information. It comes so fast, so vehemently that it’s becoming harder and harder to take it in, to accurately determine what is true, what is important.

I was so touched with Carla’s comment on yesterday’s post (actually I bow to each of you who left a comment) that I felt inspired to elaborate, to write more than just a simple response.

She mentioned that while she’d always felt the connection with the Divine, the writing practice that I introduced a couple months ago has increased the signal exponentially. She says it has helped her better understand her guidance. She asks specific questions, gets specific answers. She says she has found greater clarity and peace.

I think all of us have experienced the connection, the peace and the clarity from time to time. Heck, I feel like every book I’ve ever written came from something outside of me. And we’ve all gotten signs, proof, as I called it in E-Squared, that we’re always interacting with an energy field.

We’ve had enough time in to recognize there’s a palpable intelligence that’s wiser than our own personal faculties.

But, until now, we haven’t fully trusted its consistency. We haven’t fully believed we could ask and receive answers at will. At any time.

So with all the nonsense circulating out there in the world, all the ads, the marketing ploys, the campaigns, having a way to access a reservoir of true intelligence is ever more vital. My task, my intention with the two-way is to better create my capacity to receive.

As I mentioned in Art & Soul, Reloaded, the bigger thing is always chomping at the bit to interact with us. It always has. It always will.

And as we live through what Carolyn Myss calls, ”the greatest transformation in the history of civilization,” it’s time for all of us to become active participants, to listen intentionally for the Divine signal, the Voice that speaks only of a radically new vision of love.

#222 Forever!

Straight to the Source

June 19, 2024 41 Comments

“Everything but “I love you” is small talk.”—Andrea Gibson

Happy Wednesday, you beautiful humans!

This morning at one of what I call my possibility posses, we were talking about business. Not a topic I relish, but one that tends to come up a lot.

We were discussing coaching programs where you pay some “expert” to steer you towards higher sales, more clients, you know, the normal stuff business types aim for.

I might have been a bit cheeky when I mentioned the only true expert is what I’ve been calling my cosmic concierge, the voice I rely on to make important decisions.

I find when I look to any other source it comes with restrictions and a ”to-do” list. It offers ideas that are anything but fresh and innovative. Sure, they might have worked for someone, but I’m a different person, this is a new day, today’s climate is a new climate.

The only truly reliable source is one that’s custom-designed for me. And I find this to be true in business, in my personal life, in everything. I also find it’s extremely generous and kind and sees nothing but my divine magnificence, something I see only part of the time. It also charges nary a penny and is on call 24/7.

Some might roll their eyes and admonish me with some comment like, “But that’s not the real world.”

My response? Who told you the “real world” got it right? What if the real world, the actual bottom line real world offers 100 percent perfect love for everyone, 100 percent perfect guidance for anyone who takes the time to listen?

Saint Ignatius, the inspiration for the Jesuits, says the belief in any God (source, universe, whatever you want to call it) that doesn’t comfort you is a lie.

So, yes, follow any program or success book you like, but know that there’s an energetic life force that is always there to guide you, comfort you and remind you how incredibly perfect-in-every-way you are.

Just a quick note that next Saturday, June 29, the day before my sojourn to England, I’ll be yakking it up with two powerful women. Here’s the link if you’d like to join in the yakking.

I adore each and every one of you. Thank you for being my comrades along this beautiful mystical journey called life.

#222 Forever!

Do you confine the Divine? Let me count the ways!

June 13, 2024 11 Comments

“Love is a really wild energy and like any force field, the more you send out, the bigger the boomerang.”—Joy Sullivan

Happy Thursday, peeps!

While I’d love to claim authorship of the phrase from the above headline, the truth is I picked it up from Father Greg Boyle.

Boyle, the recent recipient of a Presidential Medal of Freedom, is a Catholic priest and the founder of Homeboy Industries, a gang intervention and rehabilitation program in Los Angeles.

Besides being a fantastic wordsmith, Boyle is a master at seeing the innate goodness in everyone. He talks about radical kinship, about how we’re all loved without measure.

Because we don’t really know this, we have a tendency to, as he says, confine the Divine. So I started thinking about the countless ways we neuter the very force that sustains us.

For example:

1. We don’t really believe it exists. I mean how do you count on something that’s, well invisible? We think we’re out here, all alone, without resources. We think we have to do everything ourselves.

2. We don’t allow it to nourish us. Even those who give lip service to this higher energetic field don’t allow themselves to enjoy its unbounded, unfettered nature. Gotta keep everything in check, after all.

3. We don’t give it room to do its job. Each of us is here as a Divine expression of love. Rather than let go and depend on this this radiant field of love, we stiffen up and tune instead to a made-up vibration of lack, limitation and separation. And as long as we keep dialing into that particular reality, we keep that reality alive.

4. We don’t fully trust it. We think it judges us, that it expects something from us. We don’t dare surrender to love, because well, it might backfire and judge us or scold us for not being perfect.

Right now, as old structures crumble around us (this, by the way, is cause for celebration), let’s open wide and invite Divine Love to emerge. In us. Through us. As us.

And as the new world is being birthed, we just need to breathe, to trust and to catch it when it comes out the other side.

I also really dug this video:

Love to all.

#222 Forever!