A.A. 2.0 – Pam Grout

Welcome to the sidewalk joy map!

August 12, 2025 25 Comments

“To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health or our circumstances. We must try.” – Roger Ebert

Rachael and one of her own mini-joy producers.

I hadn’t planned to write a post today, mainly because I’m in the throes of my next book deadline.

But then I read this article about the Portland Sidewalk Joy Map and, well, since it’s my sworn mission to share this kind of astounding and important news, I couldn’t help myself.

Here’s the scoop:

Rachael Harms Mahlandt is an artist who curates mini-yard installations created solely for the purpose of spreading a moment of joy to people walking by.

In her hometown of Portland, she has found more than 130 of these sidewalk art exhibits including a rubber duckie exchange, a pollinator seed bank (created in honor of a rescued bumble bee named Harriet), a thimble exchange and 10 tiny hand-cranked music boxes. She created a map for others to also enjoy these secret interactive exhibits and recently branched out to make a map of such installations around the world.

I love this story so much because it’s real news, truthful news. It’s how the world really is when you look beneath the collective focus on turbulence.

I choose not to give my precious energy to the tumultuous story. Because I know that by training my attention on beauty and blessings, I generate more of what I most want to see.

I have been working my self-designed A.A. 2.0 program for more than 12 years, texting daily blessings to my possibility posse. Every single day, I use my superpower of attention to identify moments of love, peace and creativity.

Thought I’d share a sampling from the past few days:

**I appreciate the joy of finding full-formed green beans (it happens, it seems, overnight) in my garden, how their magical appearance reminds me of manifestation (one day they’re not there, the next day they are) and how Source can use anything to remind me of its benevolence.

**I appreciate the yogurt drain pipe I rigged up for our water barrel, the yellow finch feasting on coneflowers outside my front window and Friday lunches with Bekka.

**I appreciate fun convo at Clio on and Leo (it’s a local coffee shop) with fellow North Lawrence voters, taking Azul to her first big concert at the Midland (an old vaudeville theater in Kansas City ) and riding the free trolleys from Crown Center to River Market and back.

**I appreciate community meals at the Sunrise Project, Kansas songwriters at Northside Social and long chat with my sis.

Outside the Sunrise Project where I enjoy twice-monthly community meals.

**I appreciate my always willing meditation partner, that an L.A. DJ gave E-Squared a fabulous shoutout and finding a book I’ve long wanted in the local free book library.

So that’s my public service announcement for today, friends. Love you all more than you’ll ever know.

#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)

Wishing you a ridiculously awesome winter holiday

December 22, 2022 46 Comments

“This life is a brief, ecstatic spark. Darling, fling yourself into the stars.”—Chelan Harkin

The headline for this post is a paraphrase of my new Consuela purse. My bestest friend, Mary, made a valiant effort to walk away when she first spotted it. But when she discovered that every single Consuela product bears the motto “Make Today Ridiculously Awesome,” usually hidden somewhere inside, she was left with no choice but to snatch it up and gift it to me.

The purse I now proudly own makes no pretense of subtlety. The life-affirming motto is plastered right there on the front in crazy wild neon. It represents my philosophy to a tee: joy, loud and proud, no matter what.

I know very little about this world, really. All I can be sure of is that this particular physical lifetime is fleeting and uncertain and well, why not make the most of every precious moment.

Is joy a crazy delusion? Or is it the underlying truth? The consciousness that goes on long after the body crumbles away?

I don’t know, but I have a hunch that love is the underlying reality of everything, that light exists in every being (whether apparent or not) and that all thoughts to the contrary are little more than a temporary broadcast that we can tune into or not.

I wish for each of you the broadcast of big ass, immutable love this holiday season. #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).

Today is your lucky day

February 24, 2018 37 Comments

“Scientists have calculated that the chances of something so patently absurd actually existing are millions to one. But magicians have calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.”—Terry Pratchett
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February 24 has always been my lucky day.

One year, my butter cake landed the blue ribbon in the Ellsworth County 4-H Fair. Another Feb 24, I won the school spelling bee. Yet another, a really hot guy invited me to dinner.

The point is, I began to notice a pattern and the wins, the joyous events started pouring in. Every year, something out of the ordinary and highly-desirable occurred.

I was thinking about this last night, wondering what cool gift was going to stop by for a visit this February 24 when it struck me. My A.A. 2.0 program, my ritual of starting every morning with “Something extraordinarily epic is going to happen to me today” is sorta the same thing.

Richard Wiseman, psychology professor at the University of Hertfordshire in England, spent eight years studying lucky people. He finally concluded that getting all the good breaks has nothing to do with karma or kismet and everything to do with how we see ourselves. He even started what he calls “Luck School” to teach people to be more lucky.

The quantum field, as you know, is an infinite mashup of superpositions or possibilities. It isn’t until the waves are measured–or observed–that they coalesce into one material reality, thus destroying the original configuration where “all is possible.”

Once we decide that “today is my lucky day,” we collapse that wave and the rest of the countless superpositions are no longer available to us.

It’s only 8:25 here, but already I got a lucky break when reading ACIM Lesson 55, another review. It more or less provides a summary (the elevator speech that everybody expects you to have) of what the Course is all about:

1. The very fact that I see disease, disaster and death is proof that I do not understand God. In other words, crazy world (when I happen to collapse those waves) is an illusion.

2. As love returns to my awareness, I will see a world of peace and safety and joy. To that, I shout “bring it!!”

So today (and I hope you’ll join me in this), I anoint myself lucky. And I declare that something extraordinarily epic is destined to happen to me today.

Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her new book, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.

The blog of awesome: a trio of miracles

May 8, 2017 11 Comments

””We all need fuel. Without the assistance, advice and inspiration of others, the gears of our mind grind to a halt, and we’re stuck with nowhere to go.”– Arnold Schwarzenegger GF815A

I’m really enjoying Tim Ferriss’ new book, Tools of Titans. This is a guy who regularly hobnobs with the likes of Jamie Foxx, Chris “Shark Tank” Sacca and Seth Godin.

He admits in the book that his life made a complete 180 after a former girlfriend gave him a “Jar of Awesome” in which he writes down cool things that happen. It reminds me of my A.A. 2.0 program.

Every time he sees the jar (even though his 20-year-old self would probably vomit), a little voice in his head says, “Things aren’t so bad, Eeyore. Perk the fuck up.”

Like most of us, he says, he’s “good at achievement and historically not good at appreciation.”

Which is one of the reasons I keep writing this blog. To remind myself that there are a gazillion things to celebrate. Ergo, three fun stories from recent emails:

1. “I mentioned in my first email that I also am getting a free press trip on Viking Cruise lines when I go to Budapest.

“I found in a notebook that in January (after I knew I would be going to Budapest, but before I contacted Viking) that I wrote, “I get to go on a Viking river Cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam for FREE.” That is exactly what I will be doing, it turns out, and I only had a choice of two trips as a journalist.

“I also wrote in that notebook that I would get paid to write articles about my trip. I am a freelancer for a local paper who has asked to write about travel, but they said they get their travel stories from AP so I never thought to consider they would pay me to write a story for them. When I went to tell the editor that I would be away for the summer because I won a trip to fly wherever I wanted to go, and that I would be in Hungary most of the summer, he said he would pay me to write for their Excursions column –not just for ONE story, but for SIX stories throughout the summer.”

2. “Your book is truly an inspiration and I wish everyone I know would read it and actually believe me without rolling their eyes!

“About 6 years ago I was depressed, lonely and overweight. I didn’t know what to do with my life. I was drinking all the time and I knew that at some point I had to do something to change my life. One day I told my husband I am quitting my job. I don’t care what happens, we will survive.

“I bought a junky camera with a credit card that I knew I would not pay. But I was desperate. I bought it and I started taking photos, I went on YouTube and learned how to do makeup and hair. I created a photo area in my 100 degree heat garage and started inviting people to come take pictures in that heat! And they came! Man did they come! It was free of course, but I was relentless! I worked and worked and I did catalogs for free! Fashion shows! Anyone who would let me I would take photos of.

“One day a friend of mine who was a video editor for a fashion company said hey they need a photo retoucher with beginner experience. They hired me on the spot, I didn’t even know how to turn on an iMac but again I was relentless. I was 30 years old and starting all over, I didn’t care. Long story short I went from making 11 bucks an hour to almost 130 k a year in just 2 and a half years. I’ve worked on magazine covers, Victoria Secret models, celebrities and I even had one of my images appear on NBC.

“I manifested all of this. I never doubted in my mind that these things would happen, not even when everyone thought I was insane. One year, when I first started, I held a magazine called Bullet and I said “Man, I am so going to work on the cover of this one day. One year later, I was retouching Jonah Hill flipping off the camera on the cover. After that I started a job making 45 k a year and I told my husband 1 year from now I will be making $70. One year later to the day I got a raise and I was now making $70 k.

“These things we want are not silly dreams. They are what we decide we want them to be. I just finished reading Thank and Grow Rich and I loved it. One of my common practices is when I am sitting at the computer working on freelance and I feel tired I take a breath and take a deep look and say thank you for the opportunity to work on this amazing project and then put love and passion into it. And what ends up happening is the project becomes easy and it goes by rather quickly. If I told myself it was hard I would lose my mind and the hours would drag on.”

3. “Since first reading E-Squared, I have a journal filled with little miracles I’ve experienced. The best one so far happened the day after I finished reading Thank and Grow Rich.

“I went for my daily walk which is the same route everyday, but this time I was thinking about all the things I was thankful for. I was saying things like “Thank you for this beautiful weather that I’m able to get out and walk in. Thank you for this healthy body and legs to walk on. Thank you for the fresh mountain air.”

“Honestly, I felt a bit silly doing it at first but I didn’t stop. Then, right as I was saying thank you for something else, I noticed a little cloth pouch on the side of the road in the mud. I felt compelled to pick it up so I did and I couldn’t believe what was inside….10 little charms inscribed with ‘Thank You!’

“It seems too random for me to believe it was just a coincidence I stumbled upon them at that very instant. They’re clearly not worth any monetary value but I keep one on a necklace I wear everyday now and have given out the rest to people I love. When I feel stressed or nervous I hold onto it and it reminds me not to worry because the world is a magical place and great things happen all the time unexpectedly.”

Indeed, my friends. Welcome to the magical world.

Pam Grout is the author of 18 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the recently released, Thank and Grow Rich: a 30-day Experiment in Shameless Gratitude and Unabashed Joy.

Notes from the frontiers of magic and enchantment

July 28, 2016 21 Comments

“When they go low, we go high.”–Michelle Obama

2015 iHeartRadio Music Festival - Day 2 You know that declaration I make every morning? That something amazingly awesome is going to happen to me today.

Well, yesterday I was minding my own business after a fun breakfast with my pickleball pals and I get a message from an editor at People magazine.

“I know it’s last minute,” she said. “But would you be willing to interview Blake Shelton? He’s doing a pop-up concert in Kansas City. Could you possibly find time to go to the concert and imbibe in the free cocktails and hors d’oeuvres his new vodka company is offering to VIP’s beforehand.”

Ummmm……let me think about it.

You want to pay me to go meet a tall handsome man who sings?

I’ll bet you can guess what I did last night.

The point is, my friends, you never know what amazing thing might happen.

And with that, I give you a couple more fun stories about zeroes and asking largely, straight from my magical inbox.

Story A. “Being one who loves finding money on the ground, I usually have a habit of putting the coins in a bowl until I have enough for the coveted morning cup of coffee. Working at a school, it usually doesn’t take that long. After reading the experiment about asking the FP to show himself, prove himself and quit playing hide and seek, I decided to “think big!”

“So I asked him for a five dollar bill. I gave the FP 48 hours before I wanted to find a juicy, fat five spot lying on the ground. After all, I’ve read somewhere that you can go to the ocean with a thimble or a bucket – the ocean doesn’t care.

“Long story short, I was cruising through my everyday affairs at High School USA when there, right in front of me, sat a ten dollar bill. A ten! I immediately got mad at myself! “Why didn’t I ask for a hundred? Or a thousand?

Story B. “Hi Pam, thought I’d share our recent blessings. I read E-Squared about a year ago. I was thinking about re reading it, I have it on my iPad so no dramas. We were at the library and there on the shelf shouting at me was E-cubed.

“I got it out and started manifesting. I use my fridge as the sound board and write my requests on a magnetic white board. I started off with $2000 please. Within a month or so we had received that amount from various places, cheques, funding, rebates etc. I had lots of little signs in between.

“The secret joke between me and the universe had me in stitches. I decided to go bigger. I asked for gifts or prizes totally $7000. My son is a squash player and he is pretty tuned into the manifesting world and he wants to go to college in America under a squash scholarship. Out of the blue, he was approached by a private boarding school over there asking him to consider a fully-funded place there. He applied and yesterday we got confirmation he had been accepted. The rough amount they cover was not $7000 but $70,000! I suppose I did say approx. What’s a zero anyway? I’ve been telling my friends to “just ask the fridge”! Thanks Pam!!

And thank you, my beautiful miracle believers. Remember, ask largely!!!

Pam Grout is the author of 18 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the about to be released, Thank and Grow Rich: a 30-day Experiment in Shameless Gratitude and Unabashed Joy

Something amazingly awesome is going to happen to me today.

June 1, 2013 9 Comments

“What’s the point of being realistic?”–Will Smith

My social media mentor says, “Nothing wrong with re-runs.” In other words, if a post is popular and people need to be reminded of something, run it again.So abiding by those words of wisdom and wanting to spend my Saturday having an absolute blast with old friends in Flagstaff, Arizona, I am reposting this important reminder that we get out of life whatever we look for:

My name is Pam G. and, as of today, I am launching a brand new chapter of A.A. Unlike Version 1.0, my A.A. stands for Amazing Awesomeness and it only has two steps.

Step #1: Admit that… “something amazingly awesome is going to happen to me today.” First thing every morning, before throwing off your covers, before leaping out of bed (and it doesn’t take long in this program before participants do leap out of bed with joy and expectation), before firing up the old Mr. Coffee, proclaim to the world that something unexpected, exciting and amazingly awesome is going to happen to you today. It takes what, three, four seconds? Yet it’s one of the most important things you will ever do. The first few minutes of every morning pre-paves the next 24 hours with positive expectations. It sets up a powerful intention, a forecast on which you can focus.

And it never fails to come true.

Step #2: Come to believe… in blessings and miracles. Pretend you’re a private investigator assigned the task of finding all the beauty and largesse in the world. The dominant paradigm might suggest otherwise, but practiced with regularity, this ritual will force you to see things in a whole different way. Instead of looking for problems, be on the hunt for new blessings. Take on the mission each day of reporting back with at least three pieces of amazing awesomeness, three blessings that are different than the day before. I often liken myself to Lewis or Clark, scouting important new territory.

Because we get out of life whatever we focus on, practicing these two simple steps has the power to override and overturn the accepted paradigm.

Like Bill W.’s A.A, that has reformed the lives of millions, this new program (A.A. 2.0) can transform a “nameless squad of empty glass thinkers.”

I invite others to join me in tweeting their blessings (only rule is it has to be different each day) to my Twitter feed. Or feel free to leave your blessings here. By expecting and looking for a different, more kinder reality, we can, together in one jubilantly mighty whoop, uplift and lighten this tired old world.

Don’t you think it’s time?

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” – Thornton Wilder

February 13, 2013 1 Comment

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”
 – Oprah Winfrey

My friends, relatives and anyone who follows my blog knows about A.A. 2.0. It’s a simple, two-step program for revolutionizing your life.

The name comes from my daily practice of getting up each morning and proclaiming, “Something amazingly awesome is going to happen to me today.”

The next step, just as easy, involves texting three miracles and/or blessings (A.K.A. awesomeness) to four friends who I refer to as my “power posse.” The only stipulation is the list has to be different every day. I like to say that my number one mission in life is scouting miracles. I’ve found that the more I look for them, the more plentiful they become.

Since I’m writing about travel today and looking over my itinerary for next week’s oh-so-exciting trip to the Cook Islands, I thought I’d demonstrate how this simple program works by sharing the awesomeness from last month’s adventure to Belize:

Thursday: Easy, on-time flights, staying on a 7200-acre rainforest preserve and drinking Argentinean wine with the resort’s South African manager.

Friday: Exploring a 3000-year-old Mayan site, howler monkeys who sound like Jurassic Park and rescuing my favorite hat before it plunged down an 800-foot waterfall.

Saturday: Swimming three-feet away from a three-foot loggerhead turtle, seeing lemon sharks, barracuda and a giant school of blue tang and being invited to watch the Caribbean cup soccer finals on an outdoor TV while eating just-caught barbecued lobster.

Sunday: Egrets and pelicans on my morning beach walk, mimosas and gelato before my 10 a.m. flight and getting home 30 minutes early.

If you want to join A.A. 2.0, tweet your daily blessings to #A.A. 2.0.

Pam Grout is the author of E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality.