ACIM – Page 26 – Pam Grout

Be crazy with love. Love when it makes no sense

February 14, 2018 13 Comments

“We all long for love. Everything else is just killing time.”–Kenny Loggins

Happy Valentine’s Day, my friends!

Here’s my favorite post for this most auspicious day. Enjoy!

Most people hear the word “love” and immediately think of long white dresses, tuxes and diamond rings. Our tendency to associate love with romance is a gaping blind spot. Not only are there millions of people to love (forget your quest to zero in on Mr. or Ms. Right), but there are million of ideas, millions of causes, million of quests to fall in love with.

Take Dale Price, for example. This stay-at-home dad from American Fork, Utah, spent three years waving at his high school son’s bus dressed in weird costumes, a different one every day. It started the first day of his son’s sophomore year when he realized the bus, for the first time, would drive down their street. Price greeted the bus (and his embarrassed son) that first day wearing a football helmet. From there, his creativity grew. He has waved at the bus dressed as Elvis, Fred Flintstone, Santa Claus and, once, a lampshade. He and Rain, the red-faced son, ended up on Good Morning America and the resulting blog, Wave at the Bus, has received millions of hits and raised money for Rain’s college fund, although his dad is quick to admit it may also end up being used for therapy.

The point is, there are lots of ways to make people happy, lots of ways to love. Don’t sit around waiting for your soul mate. Be crazy with love. Love when it makes no sense.

ACIM Lesson 45 (God is the mind with which I think) echoes this sentiment: to think with God is to love in all its bewildering ways, shapes and styles.

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.

Go towards the light

February 13, 2018 21 Comments

“There’s more joy than I ever knew.”—Mary Karr
1ca

I’m not psychic, but I’m pretty sure that 100 years from now (hopefully sooner), future generations are going to look back at our belief in separation and limits and wonder, “What were they thinking? How could they be so misinformed?”

They’ll scratch their heads at our refusal to live in the light, to celebrate our joy in much the same way we look back at the Roman Circuses.

“Are you kidding me?” we think, “How could thousands of people sit around drinking wine and being entertained by lions ripping gladiators apart?”

They’ll consider it a laughable curiosity that we treated ourselves this way, that we chose to suffer when right on the other side of the veil is everything we could possibly want.

And it’s all so easy and natural. It’s just that our beliefs have blocked the light that tries to stream to us at every moment.

ACIM lesson 44 (God is the light in which I see) basically tells us that it’s far more radical to live in the light than to live in despair.

The side effect of this ridiculous notion of despair and limitation is we live at half throttle. By not delighting in our inherent gifts, we actually live out the outdated Roman Circus-like notion that we are weak and incapable of creating our lives.

Future generations will also consider it freakishly odd that we felt so guilty and didn’t have the fun and joy we are entitled to. They just won’t understand why we didn’t relish in our creative powers. They’ll puzzle, “They had this amazing gift and they left it sitting in the corner, unwrapped.”

For what it’s worth, future generations, I’m doing my part now (even as we speak) to get up every day, pronounce that something amazingly awesome is going to happen to me today and to spend my day in unadulterated wonderment at all the world’s blessings and miracles.

Super God to the rescue

February 12, 2018 28 Comments

“It didn’t really come up that much, the need to yodel.”—Elizabeth Berg

When George Eastman introduced the first commercially-available camera in 1888, he had a goal. He wanted to make photography “an everyday affair.” Or as his company Eastman-Kodak later rephrased it, to make it as “convenient as a pencil.” Their marketing slogan was: “You push the button, we do the rest.”

That’s sorta how I see A Course in Miracles. I don’t have to understand it. I don’t even have to like what it says. I just have to push the button.

ACIM Lesson 43 (God is my Source. I cannot see apart from Him) is one of those lessons I really don’t like all that much. It’s preachy and strikes me as not much fun.

So here’s what I do when I feel grumpy about one of the lessons.

1. I flip through the text and find one of the lines I’ve underlined, ones that I DO like. For example, today I opened to:

Only you can deprive yourself of anything.

The laws of happiness were created for you.

Lack does not exist in the kingdom of God.

2. I replace the word God that, as I said in E-Squared, has more baggage than the Chicago airport with one of my trusty synonyms: the Divine Buzz, Source, the Universe. Here’s a big shout out to the person who suggested in the comments on this very blog a synonym that has become my current favorite: Super God.

3. I turn it over to the Holy Spirit. Relying on an unseen spirit that happens to be holy (and a badass at that) is kinda cool, much more fun than turning it over to that misogynist “guy” that some churches pontificate about.

4. Lastly, I remind myself that, in the end, none of it is really up to me. My only job is to push the button.

It’s all a gift

February 11, 2018 41 Comments

“We can be scared, we can be angry, we can be hopeful, we can be sad. We can be all these things and have company in it. –David Wilcox

unicorn

I’m home from my magical trip to Canada and decided to read a few of the comments. One, that I felt compelled to answer immediately, seemed relevant for all of us.

Penelope (I’ve changed the name) asked a question about my post on being very precious. She said she didn’t feel worthy of that label and couldn’t seem to get over her anger. Here’s my answer:

Dear sweet, oh-so-worthy Penelope–I just opened my computer to write today’s lesson and thought I’d read a few of the comments. I just read yours and feel impelled to reply…right this very moment. First of all, it is perfectly okay to be angry. In fact, I call “it’s okay” the magic words that can change your life forever. Whatever it is you feel, whatever it is you think, it’s okay.

Second of all, I, too, am very flawed. VERY!!! And I am learning, slowly, slowly, to observe the voice that wants to tell me ‘it’s not okay. I’m not okay.” I think what happens when we ask to see things differently, as the Course suggests, we turn the light on those thoughts that cause us so much pain and, like cockroaches, they begin to scatter.

Nothing–anger, death, guilt, frustration–makes us less precious. We are precious because we are precious. Our thoughts (what the Course calls the ego) will try to tell us we’re not precious, that it’s not okay to feel certain things.

But it’s all okay, my precious, beautiful friend. If for today, you can simply separate yourself from your thoughts (just a little) and just observe them. The trick is not to take them as your identity.

As we learn to be gentle with ourselves (sometimes the hardest thing to do), we find that there’s no need to “find brighter Penelope” or “cut the anger from our psyche.” The Truth about ourselves is underneath it all. It can’t be changed by our anger. Our judgments. Those things are all just normal antics of the mind.

But for today, just breathe and know that whatever train of thoughts is plowing through your head is all okay.

Love, love, only love,

Pam

Lesson ACIM 42 (God is my Strength. Vision is his Gift.) says this:

Your passage through time and space is not at random.

You cannot fail in your efforts to achieve the goal of the course.

It’s a gift and you don’t have to do anything.

You can receive it any time anywhere, wherever you are, in whatever circumstances you find yourself.

GET OUT! Escaping the little house of horrors

February 10, 2018 19 Comments

“Love has befriended me so completely that it has turned to ash and freed me of every concept and image my mind has ever known.” –Hafiz
1no
Some people collect salt and pepper shakers. Others, coins or cookie jars.

I’m a sucker for a good quote—probably because I’m a writer and adore words and ideas. I rarely write anything (except travel articles) without leading off with a quote.

ACIM Lesson 41 (God goes with me wherever I go) is chock full of worthy words of wisdom for my collection.

For example, “Leave appearances. Approach reality.”

What appears to be (in the news, in my litany of dislikes, fears and problems) is a hologram of my beliefs. As long as I continue to “invent cures” for my personal house of horrors, they will continue to star in my reality. But the minute I question their validity, they will literally disappear.

This is SO difficult to believe because we’ve invested our entire lives in the idea of problems. We think it’s our mission to eradicate all the things we do not like.

But what if they’re not even real?

Today, instead of believing in the heavy cloud of appearances, I will celebrate the fact that the Source of all Joy (or Super God, as someone delightfully called it) goes with me wherever I go.

And I will know that anything that might look like a problem is just me making up a story that will go “poof” the minute I withdraw my belief.

The problem, as this lesson stresses, is not real.

You are incredibly precious

February 9, 2018 15 Comments

“O God, help me to believe the truth about myself no matter how beautiful it is.”–Macrina Wiederkehr
god's handwriting
In the interest of time (I don’t want to miss the maple crepes at Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello), I’m going to offer you the beautiful words of Macrina Wiederkehr, a Benedictine nun from Arkansas:

“You are incredibly precious! In the sacred moments offered to you each day, robe yourself with that truth. Linger with it in each new moment given to you and consider how you might bless those you encounter simply because of the truth of who you are. Hold on to your ephemeral staff and memorize these words: I am incredibly precious.”

Being incredibly precious is ACIM Lesson 40 in a nutshell: I am blessed as a son of God.

It’s your invitations to see yourself as you really are. The truth will astound you.

The rumble in the jungle inside my head

February 8, 2018 24 Comments

“If you sucked all the thoughts out of your head, you’d find nothing but peace.”—Jill Whalen

“Wonder what we’re having for dinner?’

“I knew I should have shaved. My massage therapist has got to be grossed out by my hairy legs.”

“Are those birds chirping on the CD or are they outside?’

The above is a small sampling of the thoughts I noticed during my massage at the Mont-Tremblant Fairmont Spa. Here I am having one of the best massages of my life in one of the most beautiful spots on the planet and the voice in my head decides it’s time to play color commentator.

ACIM Lesson 39 (My holiness is my salvation) tells me, in no uncertain terms, that my holiness is the answer to every question.

In fact, the only thing that could ever prevent me from enjoying my badass holiness is that little voice, the chatty asshat that seems to talk constantly.

That’s why, whenever I have the presence of mind to do so, I separate myself from the voice by simply observing it. I like to think about it in third person so I’m not tempted to take it on as my identity.

And just so you don’t get the wrong idea, I’m having an absolute blast on this travel writing assignment in Quebec. The amazing awesomeness (the gratitudes I text to my possibility posse) from this morning were: dog sledding with a handsome Canuck who was the spitting image of Jesus, having fondue in a cabin with the last living Algonquin chief and a four-course dinner at a mountain lodge built by a friend of Jackie O.

Have a marvelous Thursday. According to my friend, Christine, who creates a calendar each year documenting useful holidays, today (February 8) is “Laugh and Get Rich Day.”

Calling all superheroes!

February 7, 2018 46 Comments

“We can change the world if we start trusting our own superpowers.” –Nina Hagen

Baby Huey, a popular cartoon character when I was growing up, is a naïve, oversized duckling in diapers. Because he has the mentality of a baby, but the size and strength of a sumo wrestler, he inadvertently knocks things over and constantly causes problems. He has no idea of his superhuman strength.

That’s us, in a nutshell.

Our consciousness has the size and strength of a sumo wrestler, but because we don’t know it, we squander our abilities and often make a mess of things

ACIM Lesson 38 (There’s nothing my holiness cannot do) speaks to the size and strength of our abilities.

If you really get this one, if you incorporate it into your everyday thinking, you’ve mastered the Course. It’s the reason the law of attraction works. It’s the reason there’s never reason to despair. It’s why J.C. could heal the sick, raise the dead and walk on water.

The only reason the world “stays” the way it is now is because we use our superpowers to stare at things we don’t like. We run the data we downloaded from our culture instead of generating the brilliance we’re capable of.

Every atom, every molecule, every energy wave of your being pulses with the creative life force.

So allow me to paraphrase from the actual lesson itself:

** Holiness is your superpower.

** It reverses all laws of this world.

** It allows you to remove all pain, end all sorrow and solve all problems.

** It gives you dominion over all things.

This is a biggie, friends, but I think I’m ready to put on my cape and step out of the phone booth. How about you?

The continuing dress rehearsal in my head

February 6, 2018 10 Comments

“I’m thinking about naming my first son Emmy so I can say I’ve got one. I want Emmy, Oscar and Tony – and my daughter Grammy.”- Noah Wyle
111
Alessia Cara, the 21-year-old Canadian pop singer who just won the Grammy for Best New Artist, is living proof of one of my top ten maxims: “We animate into our lives whatever we put our attention upon.”

The night of her big win, when she strode to the stage to accept her award, she said, “Holy cow. I’m shaking. I’ve been pretend-winning Grammys since I was a kid, like in my shower.”

So what I want to know is “what are you rehearsing?” In your head. In your shower. In your everyday thoughts.

If you can’t answer right away, just look around. Look at where you are. Look at what you have.

That, my friend, is what you’ve been rehearsing.

In ACIM Lesson 37, we rehearse a statement that will upgrade every single thing in your life: My holiness blesses the world.

My purpose, the Course tells me, is to see the world through my holiness. To see it through the beauty Cara sings about in her hit, “Scars to Your Beautiful.”

Until I fully realize that I am holy, completely, 100 percent whole, I will still believe in (and therefore see) sacrifice. Until I learn to bless the world, to see through the eyes of gratitude, there will continue to be a “payment” involved. Either from myself (“I need to try harder”) or from someone else (“It’s not fair what that creep did to me”).

And here’s the real kicker. From the perception of problem (even the tiniest complaint), I will continue to see loss. And I will have no idea that my lack of gratitude, my lack of blessing, my lack of wholeness is the cause.

So today, I embrace my holiness and know that my great joy is to bless the world.

Lasering love with the Holy S

February 5, 2018 18 Comments

“Call everyone to your table of kindness.”–Majaya blast

I’m on travel assignment this week in Quebec, Canada. I’ll be skiing, dog sledding, wolf-watching, ice fishing and lasering love to every person I see.

One of the things I love most about the Course is I can do it anywhere. The trick is to not get hung up on doing it right, on having to meet every fool deadline.

The only requirement is to remember the truth about who I am: a powerful love lasering machine.

Lesson 36 is: My holiness envelops everything I see.

So today, I will remember that I affect everything with the energy I emit. My job is to ramp up the love and know unseen forces are taking care of everything else.