222 forever – Pam Grout

76 Trombones in the Thought Parade

October 8, 2024 110 Comments

“I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts.”—A Course in Miracles

Remember the movie, Broadcast News, where Holly Hunter’s character unplugs her phone, checks her watch and takes sixty seconds to sob her eyes out? Every single day.

If I remember correctly (keep in mind this movie is so old that Holly still had a landline to unplug), she does this for stress relief, to get the angst out of her system so she can be “okay” for the rest of the day.

This time of year, I feel a little like Holly Hunter, boo-hooing and getting a few things out of my system. Today happens to be Taz’s birthday. She would have been 31. And in a week, on the 15^th, it will be six years since the unexpected cerebral aneurysm.

So every early October, I’ve noticed, my ego gets a little aggressive, I get a little weepy and well, we both (my ego and me) have an abbreviated pity party……

….even though I know Taz was a sacred gift on loan from Creation. Even though I still feel her presence with me. Even though I know that death is just a story.

The story of Taz is one I miss desperately.

By the time she landed in my womb, I had accumulated a couple degrees, three decades of experience and some notable, if sporadic, accomplishments.

But it was Taz that taught me all the things I really needed to know, like how to slow down, how to marvel at tiny, everyday things, how to laugh, to dance and how to make a room-size fort out of sofa cushions.

But the two biggest lessons I learned from my brilliant, kind, creative daughter is how much love a heart can hold (Like the Grinch, my heart grew three sizes that monumental day in October 1993) and how vital it is to embrace every day, every moment, every second.

Death has a way of slapping us in the face with the reminder that life is short and uncertain and that uttering or promoting any message but “I love you. I have always loved you” is a complete and utter waste of time. This is it, friends, right now. And the only question worth asking is “How can I use this right now moment to be more generous, wide open and fully alive?”

Last week, I traveled to Omaha to partake in Valerie Kaur’s Revolutionary Love Tour. The social justice activist is visiting 45 cities to promote the beautiful idea that “there is no you and me.” Each stop on the tour is a grand celebration of love and possibility.

She talks a lot about her Sikh grandfather who would always say to her, “Do not abandon your post, my dear.” Even when sobbing, even when life appears cruel, even when the ego seems to have the floor.

So rest assured, my friends, I will never abandon my post. And if you want to know more about Valerie, here’s a beautiful interview with her and Brene Brown.

Happy birthday, Taz! And, as always, #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).

Wasting my life on fear no longer

December 31, 2023 43 Comments

“If it’s not love, it’s not good enough for you.”—Steffany Barton

The above headline is my New Year’s resolution—not that I put much stock in any intention having to do with willpower.

It’s also a paraphrase of the John O’Donohue quote with which I launched my book, The Course in Miracles Experiment.

I refuse to waste my life on fear because it’s a made-up story that the cultural paradigm uses to hide our true nature. Which is peace, love, joy and light.

Scarcity and limitation are way beneath us, people. And anything that doesn’t acknowledge that is simply put: not true.

Most Unity churches—including the one I go to—offer a burning bowl ceremony at the end of each year. That means writing down everything from the past 52 weeks we want to release. Ya know, things like restrictions, limitations, old patterns. We write these on flash paper and then poof! we burn them. Like that, they’re history.

Above all else, the Burning Bowl ceremony means giving up the past. Releasing every single thing we believe is true about the world, what we believe we’re capable of becoming. Because when we don’t impose our niggling beliefs on life, everything, including ourselves, become brand new. Every single day shines with infinite possibility.

Fear does one thing. It blocks the dynamic life force that pulses within us. But know this: fear and insignificance are nothing but false constructs made up by forces seeking to control us. Forces that benefit from keeping us small and worried and blind to our true nature.

As always, my highest intention for this next year is peace, peace, peace. And to know that what happened in the past is forever irrelevant.

So here’s my wish for all of you open-hearted, brilliant, beautiful readers. May fear begone and may only happiness, peace and joy come your way in this exciting new year.

#222 Forever

Wonderful beyond imagination

August 1, 2023 31 Comments

“It is quite possible to leave your home for a walk in the early morning and return a different person—beguiled and enchanted.”—Mary Ellen Chase

One of my favorite things about traveling is that I don’t have a car.

Here in Cadiz, I take long walks beside the beach. To the market. Through the park.

Walking opens up a bigger world than the one allowed through the modern lens of seeing.

It reaches beyond our normal habits of zooming by, minds awhirl, barely noticing life’s countless gifts. In a car, I’d never see the neon pink hibiscus, the lime green parrots flitting in and out of palm trees, the gleeful children chasing seagulls.

When you walk, life extends beyond its normal constraints. It seems rife with possibility, infected with infinity.

Which also happens to be the intention of my writing, both here on the blog and in my books.

As many of you may know, today, August 1, is the debut of the 10-year-anniversary of E-Squared. It was my 16^th book, but the first to fly off into the stratosphere, having, at last count, been translated into 40 some languages.

Although I’ll never know for sure which powerful genie took that book under its watchful care, I often credited it to the affirmation I etched into the beach on Tybee Island, Georgia.

On New Years Eve 2012, one month before it debuted, I wrote with a big stick in the sand: E-Squared will be an international bestseller. And then I let the waves take it out into the universe.

This morning, as the sun was rising here in Cadiz, I took another big stick and wrote yet another beach affirmation. This one said: E-Squared=Peace and Freedom for All.

That’s my highest hope. That it will open new possibilities, that it will shift the balance of the world from separation and limitation towards authentic freedom and love. In other words, towards who we really are.

Some of you asked about the E-Squared Pop-up Party being curated by the inimitable Lisa Natoli.

Here’s the scoop from the email she sent out to her pals:

I am a Pam Grout super-fan – and I recently heard that her book E-Squared has been updated with a 10-year anniversary edition. I GOT ALL EXCITED!!

I did all 9 of the experiments 10 years ago when the book first came out and every day and every experiment was mind-blowing and magical.

It was like being a kid again. It’s a very playful book and it will bring you back to being a child again.

So when I heard that there was an updated version, I knew I wanted to do these 9 experiments again.

My initial idea was that I would do it by myself. I love reading and it was just going to be my own private book study.

But then I thought: WHY NOT INVITE OTHERS TO JOIN????? Why not create a book study group??

Why not throw a party??

So I have created a pop-up Facebook group for the month of August 2023 for the Pam Grout E-Squared book.

It’s free. It’s private. But you do need to be on Facebook. And you do need a copy of the book or the audio version.

Pop-up means this is a temporary group – it will be up for the month of August – it’s a place for us to share our experiences with Pam’s book.

IMPORTANT: THIS GROUP IS ONLY FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING TO PARTICIPATE IN READING THE E-SQUARED BOOK, DOING THE 9 EXPERIMENTS OR LISTENING TO THE AUDIO VERSION.

If that’s you … come join me and others on Facebook. Here is the link to request to join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pamgrout

All my love to you,

Lisa

So you are officially invited to join the party. But most of all, I want you to know, I remain forever grateful and overjoyed to be part of the extraordinary awakening happening right here on Planet Earth.

#222 Forever!

A Tale of Two Cities and 2222 Miracles

July 10, 2023 42 Comments

“On you and me and everything, I bestow my ripe blessings and boisterous bliss.”–Rob Brezsny

Happy Monday, my gorgeous, fantastically awesome playmates.

I’ve been somewhat remiss in sharing miracles lately so I’d like to begin with a whopper of a miracle that recently dropped into my inbox.

A reader was experimenting with the “Money is Nothing But Energy and a Reflection of Your Beliefs” corollary from E-Cubed: AKA: Your New B.F.F. She described herself as drowning in debt, but decided to try my suggestion of seeding money anyway.

She said she couldn’t bring herself to use fivers, like Taz and I did in Chicago, but conceded to plant one dollar bills attached with notes of abundance and joy.

I’m sure you can guess what I’m about to say. Soon thereafter, she received a completely unexpected check for $7000, a huge help in planning her wedding.

As the Course so clearly promises, by giving what we most want, we prove that it is ours.

Speaking of the Course, my dear mighty companion, Alberto Agraso, who illustrated the Manifesting Scavenger Hunt map for the 10-year-anniversary edition of E-Squared, has just come out with a beautifully illustrated book of the workbook lessons in A Course in Miracles.

If you thought my ACIM book made it easy to get the lessons, this is EVEN BETTER. I just ordered a copy in Spanish for a friend who, like me, is duo-lingoing the heck out of espanol.

Which brings me to the tale of the two cities. On Wednesday, I’m flying to Spain to spend the summer in Cadiz which is yet another miracle.

I woke up one morning a few weeks ago and found a sticker Taz had made that said, “Say Yes.” It was just innocently lying on the carpet. How it got there is beyond my paygrade.

Anyway, I opened my computer later that day to find an invitation from the one and only Alberto offering his apartment…on the ocean…in Spain…for the summer.

Needless to say, I took Taz’s advice and “Said yes.”

So take this post as your sign that miracles are all around you. Simply drop the old story of lack and separation and open your mind to all the beauty, possibilities and love that the universe so desperately wants to bestow.

#222 Forever!

It’s my birthday and I’ll blog if I want to

February 17, 2023 67 Comments

“I was wise enough never to grow up.”–Margaret Mead

Just so you know, this is not a plea for birthday wishes. I already feel blessed by each and every one of you. I know (except when I occasionally get cranky) that I’m deeply loved and, if anything, I want to give birthday wishes.

Because that’s how it works. When we’re filled up with love, with the truth of who we are, it can’t help but gush over to everyone in our vicinity—even if it’s the vicinity of a blog. I write these posts for one reason. I love to write them. I do it for me.

And, yes, that’s another gravitational rule of life. When you do what you love most in all the world, it brings blessings to you AND spills on to others like an over-running cup.

When I blather on about the largesse of the world, I occasionally hear comments like “You’re out of your mind.” And I say, THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!

My mind, as useful as it is, has never delivered much joy. It’s too busy keeping track of stuff, making to-do lists and filing all the reasons I should focus on the human meatball part of myself. But boy, when I get “out of my mind,” all I experience is joy and a beautiful awareness that I am so lucky to have occurred at all.

Today’s Course lesson is “There is nothing to fear.” So my third birthday wish for all of you is this: Get out of your fear-producing mind, recognize the Truth and enjoy a big honking birthday celebration on me. #222 Forever!

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

Law of Attraction Strikes Again

April 4, 2022 31 Comments

“Grace is always right there holding your hand.”—Jim Carrey

This is the bingo card for the Magical Mystery Manifestation Adventure. And, yes, we plan to manifest all these things!!!

When I first wrote E-Squared, when it was still called God Doesn’t Have Bad Hair Days, I had never heard the term Law of Attraction. This was in the early 2000’s before The Secret had become a household word.

I was certainly practicing the Law of Attraction, because well, you can’t NOT practice it. It’d be like trying to defy gravity. I was just coming at it from a different metaphysical angle, using practices I’d learned from Unity. Potato-potatoh!

At all times, we emit an energetic vibration that affects what we pull in from the big cosmic energy field. It may appear that things “just happen,” but, in reality, we constantly attract — to use that terminology — experiences that match our energetic frequency.

That’s why it’s so important to practice gratitude, to focus on possibilities, to let go of old patterns and beliefs.

When you live on a frequency of trust, when you know that generosity, kindness and goodness is the state of the world, amazing things happen.

Essential to this state of grace is becoming willing to entertain the unknown. That’s not always comfortable–most of us prefer to repeat the past.

But once you really, really get it, when you figure out how much the universe desires to bless you, you begin attracting beautiful things, amazing people, oh-wow experiences.

And you really don’t have to do anything. This is the part that trips people up. Not do anything? But what about all those affirmations? What about my vision board?

Those things are all really fun. But the important component is always your invisible energetic frequency, your state of attraction, so to speak.

I’m at a point in my life and career where I just trust that cool things will come my way. Like I was just invited on a cruise to Portugal on some brand new ship that just debuted.

I don’t really plan these things, per se. I just trust that if my vibrational frequency is focused on gratitude, goodness and blessings, that’s what will show up. It’s classic Law of Attraction. Keep your vibration clear, loving and pure and voila! Awesome sh*t happens!

Recently, a fantastic opportunity landed on my doorstep with none other than The Universe itself. Or rather the guy — Mike Dooley — who writes the oh-so-inspiring Notes From the Universe.

He called, we brainstormed a bit and decided that it was time to offer something really exciting, really simple and really fundamental. Call it Law of Attraction 101. Call it Manifesting. Call it fun, fun, fun.

Together, we are offering a 21-day Magical, Mystical Manifestation Adventure. It’s a three-week experiment, I guess you could say, in recognizing how your vibration pulls various experiences into your sphere.

Loads of opportunities come my way, but this one was a hell yes! because A) we’re going to raise some money for the Taz Grout 222 Foundation and B) because, well, we could all use a little fun right now.

This Adventure, as Mike calls his programs, is light-hearted, joyful and designed to demonstrate that we all have reality-creating superpowers. I do hope you’ll join us. Find out more here. #222 Forever!!!

Put down the duckie

December 30, 2021 17 Comments

“Until you know yourself to be essentially whole, and not the wounded and broken one who needs to be fixed, the true solution to your personal suffering will remain out of reach.”–Gail Brenner

So I was watching a documentary about Sesame Street. In one of the songs, Ernie was futilely attempting to learn to play the saxophone. All he could produce was a sorry-sounding squeak. Hoots, the Owl, finally diagnoses Ernie’s problem and launches into a clever song that I’ve decided to use as my New Year’s resolution: Put down the duckie.

Ernie is unable to play his heart out, to fully join the exuberant band because he refuses to let go of the rubber duckie he has been clutching to his heart.

The “rubber duckie” most of us non-Muppets refuse to surrender are the highly-conditioned thoughts and patterns that make up the ground of our awareness.

On the top of the list is the suffocating belief that we need to be fixed, that we’re not quite as good at “playing the saxophone” as the next guy. We also believe we must jump through a series of hoops to get there—wherever there is.

But the need to grasp onto that duckie is nothing but the ego’s opinion. And in 2022, the only voice I’m listening to is the one reverberating in my heart, the one that doesn’t come and go.

So bye-bye duckie!

I also want to announce that the Taz Grout 222 Foundation has finally chosen a candidate for the 2/22/22 award that happens to fall on a Tuesday (2’s day). As usual, there were SO MANY inspiring ideas. Reading through them all made me pump my fist in the air and hoot, “Shazam!”

People are out there doing amazing things. The Global Art Project for Peace, for example, pairs artists from around the world. Each creates a work of art (a song, a dance, a painting) that expresses their vision of global peace and goodwill and then every two years in late April the messages are exchanged, with peace circulating across the globe. Artists from more than 97 countries have participated.

Another beautiful candidate helmed by 25-year-old Romanian artist Florentina even has a “spokes-zebra” whose motto is “My stripes may be different, but my heart beats the same.” I also really liked their “We are all Stardust” t-shirts.

Like always, the winner will be announced on February 22.

In the meantime, East West Bookshop has asked me to do a Pop-up Possibility Posse. It’s on Zoom and, as the notice says, there’s no agenda, no set format…just a fun, high-vibe gathering where you can ask me anything.

My portion of the proceeds will, of course, go to the Taz Grout 222 Foundation.

I’d love to see you there.

So Joyful New Year, my loving, brilliant, inspiring friends. Let’s make this the year we put down the duckie for good. #222 Forever

When life changes in a literal heartbeat

September 24, 2021 25 Comments

“There isn’t time — so brief is life — for bickerings, apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. There is only time for loving — and but an instant, so to speak, for that.” — Mark Twain

Every now and then, something comes along that I feel duty bound to shout from the rooftops. Today, my web designer, who already rocked my world when she generously offered to rejuvenate my saggy website, sent me the exact thing I longed to hear—although I didn’t know it.

In exactly two weeks from today, it’ll be Taz’s birthday. She would have been 28. I’ve been thinking about her A LOT. Not just because Google, on the fall Equinox, featured this logo. Or because the new barista at my coffee shop wears a 222 necklace. But because well, it’s coming up on the third year since she so unexpectedly died. I’ve been a bit mopey.

So I have to cry out in joy (or at least write a blog post) to proclaim that life, no matter how it may appear, always shows up with the very sign or gift you need.

I’d already had that reminder on Wednesday when I was being interviewed by Maejor, a big-time hip hop producer who is currently on a global mission to heal the planet through music. The Grammy-nominated producer (who happens to be 33) discovered that music, when tuned to 432hz, emanates a healing, harmonious energy. Most music is tuned at 440hz, a standard approved by the American Federation of Musicians in 1917. But Mozart and Verdi, who tried to make 432hz official then (complete with signed documentation from physicist Felix Savart, ) tuned their music to 432hz, a frequency that better matches earth’s frequency.

Anyway, Maejor was reading my book, E-Squared. After being diagnosed with leukemia, he decided he could no longer wait to throw his hat into the activism ring. He always figured he’d “serve humanity” when he was older. For now, he was having great success writing tunes for movies, Pepsi commercials and even the Boston Celtics. His diagnosis prompted a sudden pivot. Now was the time to change the frequency.

His messages of positivity didn’t seem to be selling like his earlier songs so he did the Dude Abides experiment asking for a sign. Within the 48 hour-time period, Justin Bieber (I KNOW!) called unexpectedly and invited him on a tour to Japan, one of many synchronicities that further cemented his life-changing mission.

As I said, things can turn around in a heartbeat. My heartbeat moment occurred this morning when the wonderful Ioana Stoica sent me this:

Love you all to the moon and back. Have the best weekend of your life. #222 Forever