death is not real – Pam Grout

Why not let the universe surprise you

January 27, 2020 38 Comments

“From a new perception comes a future very different from the past.”—A Course in Miracles

It’s time, guys! Time to break free from all stale, boring, petrified concepts.

Why stay trapped in a prison of scarcity, a ticking time bomb of fear? A Course in Miracles is very clear—the dominant paradigm is nothing but a make-believe fable that we can overturn at any time.

Once we let go, we discover it’s safe to love with abandon, it’s prudent to see beyond appearances, it’s advisable to dance with the unseen.

As Kobe Bryant’s shocking death reminds us, there is no time to waste. Why devote even one second to judgment? To waiting? To withholding?

Kobe is on to the next big adventure, as is his daughter, as is my daughter. Won’t be long until we’re all enjoying the big cosmic dance.

But until then, let’s throw off the shackles of anxiety and panic. Let’s overturn frozen concepts.

Maybe we could just trust the universe might know what it’s doing.

And with that thought, I’d like to return to my former practice of sharing “oh wow! stories from my inbox:

1. “I was in Nevada walking through a desert ranch with my boyfriend. As we were running back to the car, I stopped and picked up a black rock in the sand. I put it in my backpack and promptly forgot about it…until a week later when someone posted a picture on Facebook of a black rock they found on the ground at a concert. The same concert I had been at a few days prior ! I thought “Oh shoot, that’s my Nevada rock! I ran to my bag and it was unzipped!!!! But when I reached my hand in, it was there! Safe and sound!

“Now I was interested in finding out about the rock. So I messaged my friend who is a rock crystal expert. As I was shining my light on the rock to videotape for her, I saw that MY NAME was carved into the rock !!!!! In all caps. KAYLIN. On a rock that I happened to pick up in the middle of the desert. How ?!?!?!!!”

2. “Like a lot of people, I have read hundreds of self-help books over the years. Yours was different. I’d been unemployed for 8 months and was finding it very hard to get a job. I also needed a new car. I did the 48-hour manifestation exercise that you talk about (in E-Squared). I did it exactly as you said. And, both times it worked within 24 hours. Firstly, I got offered a job and secondly, I found the car I wanted to buy at the price I wanted to pay in the exact color I wanted. Wow! The job I applied for wasn’t the one I got. It was a supervisor job with a $15,000 higher wage. I’m blown away.”

3. “Your books have inspired me to step out differently in my view of this universe we live in. And since you mentioned getting a free cup of coffee, I thought to myself, “How am I going to get a free cup of coffee? I’m a stay at home mom with a 4- and a 1- year old.

“Well, I met up with a friend at this craft event and she (without my thinking about it or asking) bought me a coffee!! It didn’t dawn on me until the next day when I picked up your book again and it popped in my head, “Oh my gosh I got a free coffee!” Crazy how abruptly in happened!”

I share that last story to emphasize how important it is to open our eyes, to actually notice the beauty, the gifts, the wonderment.

She could easily have missed it. Like we all do when we refuse to budge from our old positions, our old beliefs.

Today, I start fresh.

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).

Small sign, ginormous implications

May 23, 2018 31 Comments

“Facts, my dear Sancho, are the enemy of truth.”—Miquel de Cervantes
turtle
The brain, as cool as it is, mainly serves as a reducing valve. It takes the overwhelming flood of information available and filters it down to a trickle. It’s efficient for survival, I suppose, but it screens out most of life’s wonderment.

That’s why my job, in my books and here on the blog, is to point out all the miracles, signs and blessings we tend to miss with our rational, utilitarian minds.

Take yesterday, for example. When driving the windy roads to my dad’s memorial at an outdoor venue in the Great Smoky Mountains, I nearly ran over a turtle.

Thankfully, I managed to swerve and not hit the poor fellow. But here’s why it was extremely significant for me.

When I was growing up in small towns, my dad often took me for “Oh look at that” drives out in the country. We frequently spotted horned toads and box turtles and, 70 percent of the time, we stopped, picked them up and took them home as pets.

In fact, my turtle, Pokey, after three weeks of winning the Saturday night Turtle Races in Ellsworth, Kansas, held in the IGA parking lot, had to be retired. Race officials deemed it just wasn’t fair to the other contestants.

Keep in mind, I haven’t run across a turtle in probably 30 years. But yesterday, on the way to Dad’s memorial, smack dab in the middle of the road, just like I remembered, was a box turtle.

Most people would shrug, call it a coincidence, but I know better.

ACIM Lesson 143 is a review reminding me that if I choose, miracles are all I’ll see.

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 Mjuses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.