Elizabeth Gilbert – Pam Grout

The call is coming from inside the house

January 16, 2026 33 Comments

“Everyone gets an A+ in the end.”—Elizabeth Gilbert

Last weekend, one of my possibility posses threw a retreat. There wasn’t a leader, an agenda or really any kind of planning except someone offering to bring food.

We spent Saturday and Sunday together dancing, playing games, star-gazing, hot tubbing and letting Spirit take the lead.

It was pure magic.

And the real beauty is we didn’t orchestrate any of it.

Which makes me wonder what would happen if humans could just yank the cord, abandon the rules, give up the programming, forsake all the planning.

If we truly trust that the universe has our back, if we really KNOW how deeply, deeply cherished and loved we are, couldn’t we just relax. Laugh. Dance.

The lessons from Course in Miracles the past few days have encouraged us to recognize that we’re the ones creating the world.

Our thoughts — the ones that encourage fealty to the old story, to the fear, to the limitations — make images that replace true vision.

But like the headline of this post points out, “It’s all coming from inside us.”

What we see out there are images we concocted. And they’re not real. They block us from seeing that the world we live in is actually alive, intelligent and forever supportive.

At the retreat, someone mentioned a woman she knew who spoke great spiritual wisdom. And she did it with two simple words.

T’aint so.

Whenever anyone began discussing a problem –no matter what it was—she’d listen, shake her head and say, “T’aint so.”

Or as another friend said quoting, I think it was Abraham-Hicks, “If you could believe and trust that everything is so very all right, it would immediately and instantly become very all right.”

Glorious Friday. May it be the best weekend yet.

#222 Forever!

Pam Grout is the author of 22 books including E-Squared, Thank & Grow Rich , The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World)and her latest, The Ego’s Playbook.

How to build a new world

July 21, 2025 31 Comments

“Ask yourself how you can transform this very moment into something radiant and radical and spectacular.”—Elizabeth Gilbert

I often share “You are never gonna believe this” stories here on the blog. And while an eerily spectacular tale recently dropped into my inbox (it involved a completely empty cabinet that suddenly filled with necessary medical supplies), I’ve been thinking more about the gazillion little miracles I walk by every day.

For the past week, I’ve been hosting some of the folks I met in South Africa. Lucien and Theolene are currently attending I.Y.O.U. (International Youth of Unity) at Unity Village, but last week, we did a lot of things that I’ve been known to take for granted—going to a movie theater (neither had ever been), for example, or eating foods from other countries. We even stopped by the local “Make Good Trouble” protest in honor of John Lewis.

They loved EVERYTHING! They were excited by EVERYTHING! They even requested their picture taken with a big yellow school bus.

Maybe more important than making an impact, I should make sure I myself am impacted, that I myself notice and get excited by the countless treasures that exist in every moment.

Sure, things can look scary from one viewpoint, but it’s a mistake to tether myself to that position only, to disregard all the everyday lusciousness, like the hibiscus showing off in my front yard right now or the curly-haired three-year-old who danced her way up to the stage at yesterday’s quilt auction.

Like so many people, I’ve been deeply inspired by Andrea Gibson, the poet who passed last week from ovarian cancer. She said in one of her poems, “Dying is the opposite of leaving” and that, after death, she’d be “more here than ever before.” That certainly rings true-her poems are everywhere now.

She knew to fall in love with tiny things (“every falling leaf is a tiny kite with a string too small to see”) and, after her cancer diagnosis, every single experience became radiant and filled with light.

As Byron Katie once explained to Elizabeth Gilbert (I just read about this in her weekly “Letters from Love”), all she saw when she looked at her was pouring beams of light. Liz pointed out that Katie also saw those same beams of light emanating from the ketchup bottles.

But you get the idea. We see what we decide to see. We create our world with our attention.

So, yes, I will continue to celebrate big, juicy, “impossible” miracles. But I will also celebrate the small and seemingly insignificant. In other words, I intend to fall in love with everything I see.

#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)

Three clicks of the red ruby slippers

April 24, 2025 34 Comments

“In the end, every single path leads back here to love.”—Elizabeth Gilbert

First, a big sloppy thank you to all of you kind, beautiful people who posted such compassionate words right here on this very blog.

It’s never comfortable admitting your shortcomings, especially in a culture that expects perfection and constant progress. But I couldn’t continue to blog with a straight face without owning up to this hugely significant life event and the lapse in my own practice.

What was so clearly shown to me (As the Course says, nothing is against me, everything is for me) is that, despite my looking the other direction, I was never abandoned. The loving life force from which we all spring never left its post. This Divine Grace (call it the Dude, Cosmo K, whatever works for you) is eternal, immovable.

There’s nothing any of us can do to sever our connection. It can’t be done. It’s who we are.

Our thoughts, on the other hand, could use a little work.

So often we use the powerful mojo of our thoughts to create what the second of the Ten Commandments called “a graven image.” This is an image that looks real, that sure seems to be causing us problems. But it’s a version of life that’s not valid. It hides the truth, blocks the miracle.

So glad to know that, like Dorothy with her red ruby slippers, I can click my heels at any time and return home.

#222 Forever!

Getting into the sea

December 27, 2024 16 Comments

“I am the patriarchy’s worst nightmare.”—Elizabeth Gilbert

There’s an episode in the tv series, Shrinking, where the characters, clad in nothing but their underwear, tramp into the ocean to communally discuss whether or not one of them should adopt a baby.

I dig the idea of getting into the sea whether it’s literal (as in their case) or metaphorically, because it means stepping into something completely unknown, surrendering to waves that aren’t predictable or controllable. And I especially love when we do it communally as a human family.

If I believed in New Year’s resolutions (I absolutely don’t—humans, most of which are already walking anxiety disorders, do not need any more pressure), mine would be something about diving headfirst into the sea, into life without parameters, without expectations, without any idea of what’s going to happen next.

The reason resolutions (or, in my case, the lack thereof) are on my mind is because I will be ringing in 2025 on an African savanna, far from civilization’s reach. In other words, this post is to tell you, my dear comrades in spiritual mischief, that I probably won’t be chiming in much for the next three weeks.

Instead, I’ll be with the Taz Grout 222 Foundation that is supporting LoveLight Africa’s Ubuntu summer camps in 2025. Ubuntu, of course, means “I am because we are” and, yes, it’s summer right now in South Africa.

Rather than simply pony up financial support, I decided to jump in, to also offer my presence and assistance to the amazing Robin Goff who started this consciousness-changing outreach as an offshoot of the Light Center that just happens to exist 30 minutes from my home.

I’ll have a full report on February 22 (2/22) and, for anyone with an innovative idea for rewriting the dream of the modern world from consumption and acquisition to the dream of creativity and self-expression, by all means, send a pitch with the description of your big idea to: taz.grout.222.foundation@gmail.com. We still have money to give away!

For those new to the party:

The Taz Grout 222 Foundation was launched to honor my brilliant daughter who spent 25 short years on the planet inspiring everyone who knew her to live and love better. Her heart possessed more capacity than mine will ever possess. Everything she stood for was some variation of these themes: create relentlessly, love fiercely and do quiet, kind things for the underdog.

Every year, the foundation offers a grant to a project or a person (often both) who, as Liz Gilbert said in the above quote, represents the patriarchy’s worst nightmare.

We look for projects that address the following ideas:

1. A change in perspective is our greatest need. We believe all people (no exceptions) long to be generous and create beautiful things.

2. Today’s hopelessness is based on false premises. We look to defy the old story of scarcity, lack and the need to fight for resources. We aim to prove that the universe, once liberated from no-longer-working paradigms of scarcity, is generative and endlessly abundant.

3. The us against them model is kaput. We believe all humans are interconnected and that even tiny actions have great significance.

As we start this new and exciting year, never forget that the single most important thing you could ever do to change the consciousness of the world is to be tender and merciful to yourself.

As Taz forever reminds me, “Time here is short and precious. So, please, mom, be kind to yourself and venerate every delicious moment.”

#222 Forever!

More amor por favor

November 5, 2024 21 Comments

“To focus only upon doom is to become demonically obsessed, single-pointed and blind to the miraculous, the compassionate, and the fantastic.”—Elizabeth Gilbert

I took this photo in my local coffee shop this morning. Thought it merited a blog post.

Happy Tuesday, beautiful people! I decided this might be a good day to send out some love, to spread some good news and to remind myself (and anybody who happens to listen in) that anything is possible.

I’ve always viewed my writing as a way to sound the gong, throw the confetti, share stories that prove most of what we take for actual fact is a singular superposition in a field of infinite potentialities.

With that in mind, here are a couple stories that recently came my way:

Jelly Roll, before he was Jelly Roll, had, shall we say, a few run-ins with the law. In fact, by the time he was 15, he’d been convicted of armed robbery and, to this day, has a felony on his record.

Back then, he says, he was mad at life, mad at everybody. He was convinced he was a victim, believed every problem was somebody else’s fault.

It wasn’t until he finally decided to look at, as he says, “The Man in the Glass” that his life started to shift. When he began to recognize that he himself was creating it all, that he had the power to change his perspective, his entire world cracked wide open.

Today, he’s not only a Grammy-winning superstar, but he’s devoted his life to changing himself, making amends and helping others see the blamelessness within themselves. In fact, if you haven’t already, check out his amazing testimony to Congress:

The story that caught my eye is one that proves the Course in Miracles tenet that says: “The holiest of all spots on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love.”

Today, Jelly Roll and the prosecutor who first convicted him have teamed up to create a program for at-risk and incarcerated youth in Tennessee’s Davidson County. These former enemies are now respected, loving colleagues. He has also become tight with the very sheriff who first locked him up in county jail.

So whatever enemy you think you have (for me, it’s often myself), just know that an open mind and being willing to take full responsibility can restore everything to wholeness, to a present love.

Second story pits statistics and probability against possibility. It involves a couple who tried for years to have a baby. They did the shots, the treatments, everything medical science could think to do.

Finally, their doctor threw up his hands and said, “I’m sorry. It’s not going to work. Your eggs are bad. You’re too old. Go to the adoption place. Here’s a flyer.”

They were about to adopt a baby from Honduras, were busy filling out the forms, getting the life insurance, doing the requisite blood work, when a phlebotomist came to their house and happened to ask, “Now, why am I taking your blood?”

When told the story about how the wife couldn’t get pregnant, the phlebotomist said, “Stop. Just stop.”

He took the guy’s hands, looked him in the eye and proceeded to do some kind of incantation.

After a few, “God is good. God is good,” he said, “It’s all done. Don’t worry about it. In a few months, your wife is going to tell you she’s pregnant.

“You don’t have to do anything. You don’t have to tell your wife. It’s done.”

Three months later, his wife is pregnant. And, yes, they had a beautiful baby girl.

So folks, whatever story you believe to be true, whatever statistic seems like rock solid fact, never forget that, behind the scenes, there’s a bigger reality going on.

The world with which we’re most familiar (being a human, living in a body) pales in comparison to the infinite, utterly indescribable presence that’s just waiting to restore all that we’ve foolishly thrown away.

#222 Forever!!

Let’s hear it for the small and mighty

May 29, 2024 15 Comments

“In the universe there are things known and things unknown and in between there are doors.”—William Blake

Newtonian physics tells us change occurs when force is exerted on mass. To this day, most folks believe the only way to improve life is to gather enough signatures or rack up enough social media followers or amass a hefty enough pile of moolah. Then and only then, the thinking goes, can we effect positive change.

But what if that’s an outdated idea, disproven some 100 years ago when quantum physics found that even the tiniest of movements, the smallest of acts has cosmic significance?

What if the two-way conversations so many of us have begun is impacting consciousness? What if life is working in quiet and subtle ways in the journals of individuals all over the world?

What if this appeal to another intelligence is impacting the planet? What if anytime one of us opens our heart a tad bit further, the whole world opens to a new possibility?

What if the single family of four who currently enters and exits their house on a ladder through the kitchen window (so as not to disturb the mother robin who built her nest by the side door or the mother finch and her four babies by the front door) affects how all of us honor and value life?

Again, it’s not the conventional path, the one that has long told us that working hard and struggling and relying on big organizations and big governments is the route to a more beautiful world.

But here’s the thing. We all have equal power to determine the future.

I can’t help but notice that something really significant and powerful is happening behind the scenes.

Not long after I started formally asking the Divine for guidance (I’ve been a fan and a beggar for its wisdom all my life), I was told that Elizabeth Gilbert had embarked on a similar project. Last weekend, I finished a book by Julia Cameron, a sequel of sorts to the Artists Way, where she also suggests seeking written guidance (this is in addition to morning pages). As Cameron says, we all have a direct dial to God.

Each of us are interconnected at a level beyond space and time. Every part of the universe has access to information about every other part, giving all of us the power to sway the world towards light.

We need only pick up a pen and begin.

#222 Forever!

Guided by the light of the Milky Way

March 30, 2021 21 Comments

“What you think you are is a belief to be undone.”—Course in Miracles

Computers and phones have what’s called a cache that stores data, making it easy and efficient to retrieve files you frequently use. But when your cache gets full, it slows down processing speeds, takes up precious gigabytes and makes it harder to find new answers or websites or whatever it is you use your computer for.

When you clear the cache in your browser, deleting no-longer needed files, you’re open to new possibilities.

At last week’s possibility posse, we talked about this very thing. Carla sent a video of Dr. Hew Len talking about the ancient Hawaiian art of ho’oponopono that as he said, “cleans our mind.” We had a great time talking about “clearing the data” in our brain, about deleting the stuck places that continue to play out in our lives.

If you look at a two- or three-year-old, you notice they’re alive in every part of their body. But as we get older, our heads are about the only thing still alive. I heard Elizabeth Gilbert describe our bodies being mainly carrying devices for our brain jars. And sadly, most of our brain jars are filled to the brim with a cache of habits, beliefs and grievances. That’s why the Course in Miracles tells us to let it all go, every single piece of data from the past.

So today, I delete no-longer needed programs. I clear my cache, remove old cookies (packets of data, also stored on computers) and recognize that this is a day that has never been before, that will never be again and that, when I clear my old cache, absolutely anything could happen. #222Forever

Love or fear? The only decision

April 8, 2020 75 Comments

“Clinging to what you already know is the path to an unlived life.”–Parker Palmer

A Course in Miracles says we all have a mighty purpose. The reason we don’t recognize this is because we’re trained to listen to the ego, the voice of fear. The other voice, the voice of love, the voice that instructs us on exactly what to do, what to say, etc, is always available. But too often we let the ego drown it out.

I heard the coolest story yesterday that illustrates the simple decision we continuously make. Do we listen to the voice of fear or the voice of love?

Elizabeth Gilbert, in a recent Ted Talk Daily interview, talked about meeting Amanda Eller. She’s the hiker who, about a year ago, got lost in Maui’s Makawao Forest Reserve. Her 17-day ordeal made national headlines. Because she had intended an easy three-mile hike through the 2000-acre reserve, she left her phone, water bottle and wallet in the car.

Instead, she got lost in the dense forest of steep ravines, giant ferns and vegetation so thick it requires a machete to cut through. As you can imagine, she was a tad bit FREAKED OUT.

On the third night, after falling off a cliff, losing her shoes in a flash flood and experiencing other assorted terrors, she finally closed her eyes and begged for help. From the universe. From God. From whatever might be big enough to hear her, to help her. Mostly, she told Liz, she asked to be delivered from fear. She said something to the effect of, “When I open my eyes, I want the fear to be gone.”

Well, guess what? When she opened her eyes, the fear was gone. And in it’s place was a gentle voice (call it intuition, call it God, call it the Dude, as I often do) that clearly told her “It’s okay. I’ve got you.” It went on to guide her: “Eat this, not that. Head right, not left.”

The voice came through LOUD and CLEAR once the fear was gone.

Although I have no idea if Amanda is a Course student (as the Course plainly says, there are many different bus drivers to deliver you to your destination), it is a perfect example of what is ours to claim once we eliminate fear. Specific, clear guidance. But we gotta get the bully fear out of the way.

So that’s my bedtime story for today, kids! It has a happy ending–Amanda was rescued and, as she told Liz, the fear has never returned.

Big shoutout to all of you who so clearly urged me to keep sending these posts through email. It appears to be unanimous. So I will continue to send these from time to time, whenever I feel there’s something important to share.

The story about Amanda is one of many fabulous things I picked up from the interview with Elizabeth Gilbert. If you have an hour (and who doesn’t these days?), it is SO WORTH a listen. You can find it here.

Until next time, keep smiling, keep dancing and keep asking to be delivered from that pesky, persistent voice of fear.

An invitation to a whole new story

October 19, 2019 51 Comments

“It’s time for something that was beautiful to turn into something else that is beautiful.”—Elizabeth Gilbert

When Taz died last October, I wondered if, like spouses often do, I’d be gone within the year. But here it is, an entire 12 months later, and I’m still here on Planet Earth, breathing and creating yet another blog post, another book.

Since we last talked, I’ve even performed comedy karaoke, driven on a NASCAR race track and visited the bridge where George Bailey first met Clarence.

I also threw a party for what would have been Tasman’s 26th birthday.

Her friends came over, we ate cake and wrote messages on bright paper lanterns that we flew up into the heavens over the Kansas River. Four of her friends got tattoos that day in her honor. I’m gathering my nerve for my own tattoo of the 222 Foundation logo. For those new to this party, I started the 222 Foundation in Taz’s honor.

So far, I’ve received dozens of pitches for the 2020 award that will be given out February 22, 2020. The call for pitches is open until December 31. If you or anyone you know has a big idea to move the world away from its old school money, money, money orientation, please send it my way.

The mission of the 222 Foundation is to change the rules of the game. We believe our culture’s near-sighted focus on financial wealth breeds a sense of scarcity and fails to amplify the full range of human experience. It causes us to commoditize things we used to generously give for free. It causes us to forget that our deepest longing is to be generous, to connect, to love each other.

Taz certainly knew that truth. azul

Among her many legacies, is this relationship with my “Little” (from Big Brothers/Big Sisters) and her sister. The three of us made Halloween cookies on Wednesday. Taz, of course, set the two of us up nearly 18 months ago.

Taz, as I’ve written before, was pure love. Her heart was wide open to everyone. I never once heard her judge another person or gossip or utter a negative word. If you were in Taz’s vicinity, you were accepted, you were loved and you felt this joy that emanated from her very being. Every time I saw her, I literally had to catch my breath. She was that beautiful–inside and out.

I’ve been practicing the Course in Miracles for 30 years and still, I aspire to be as open-hearted and kind and full of grace as my daughter.

The Course is about changing perceptions. Instead of identifying with the ego, which is an illusory construct for dealing with the temporary world, it teaches us to embrace our immortal self, which sounds all airy-fairy, but is actually the true nature of reality.

My focus these days is on this bigger cosmic reality. It’s what I think about. It’s what I’ll be writing about going forward. It helps me understand that Taz could no more be gone than I could be wounded by Darth Vader’s light saber.

Stayed tuned for a really cool guest post by a friend who has developed a magical relationship with his father who, if you believe the old school reality, died many years ago.

Life, I’m happily learning, is SO. MUCH. BIGGER than I ever imagined.

You can never say “I love you” too often

November 17, 2018 83 Comments

“In the end, maybe it’s wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert
222a

Every time I took off on a flight, I texted Tasman to tell her I loved her. You know, just in case.

Since she’s not currently taking texts, I decided to send this email out to all of you to let you know: I LOVE YOU!

Because, well, I’m about to take off for Mumbai.

Many months ago, I was invited to join Tribes for Good on their initial Social Impact Journey. It’s a weeklong trip for those of us with a heart to make a difference in the world, those of us who want to use our talents and energy to rewrite the dominant paradigm. We’ll be learning skills to bring people together, to get us all in the same vicinity so we can all finally get it that we really DO love each other. That we really DO want to take care of each other.

Because the mission aligns so closely with The 222 Foundation (and because my best friend from college agreed to join me), I decided to carry on. I decided to take Taz’s message to me (“Mom, you’ve got to take all that love you gave to me and give it to everyone else.”) and focus on the love. Focus on what I still have.

And you’ll be happy to hear I’m even practicing what I preach, being grateful that:

1. I got 25 years with the most loving, most amazing daughter on the planet.

2. That she changed her plans and decided to stay in my hometown for the last year of her life. Initially, after her year of European and African wandering, Tasman planned to teach in China. She landed a job in Beijing, jumped through all the hoops, got all the background checks and, right before she was scheduled to start, changed her mind and stayed here working with the Spanish-speaking families of the Douglas County Big Brothers/Big Sisters. So I am so blessed that I got an extra year!!!!!!

3. We’re starting a foundation to radically change consensus reality. I’ve got people all over the world holding the vision that Taz started. Love fiercely and do kind things for the underdog.

The Foundation will give its first $10,000 grant on February 22 of the coming year.

We’ll be looking for people like Hal Taussig, the CEO I once wrote about for People magazine. He passed a few years ago (I’m guessing he’s probably busy sharing ideas with Taz), but, just to give you a sample of the types of folks (and ideas) we’re looking to fund, I’m re-posting this story about the amazing CEO who gave 100 percent of his profits to projects that address inequality.

Enjoy!

Hal Taussig will never make the Forbes list of highest paid CEO’s. It’s not that his Pennsylvania travel company isn’t profitable. Untours, the company he started in 1971 with a $5000 loan, pulls down annual profits of a million dollars, sending thousands of customers a year on shoestring cultural immersions to 24 destinations around the world.

It’s just that Hal donates every penny (yes, 100 percent) of the company’s profits to innovative projects that address poverty. He lives in a tiny two-room house with his wife Norma (she owns the century-old wood frame house that was built for mill workers), rides a bike to work (he gave his car away to a hitchhiker nearly 40 years ago), shops at thrift stores (his one suit cost $12 — “It’s a Brooks Brothers. I’m very proud of that suit,” Hal says) and refuses to take a salary. He has one pair of shoes that he resoles when they get worn and he reads newspapers and magazines at the library.

“I decided a long time ago I didn’t want to accumulate wealth,” Taussig says. “Things do not make people happy. Living simply is how I get joy out of life. I live a very rich life on very little money.”

In 1999, when John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Paul Newman awarded Taussig with a “Most Generous Business in America” award, he went to New York to accept it, but rather than staying in a hotel, he stayed in a $10-a-night youth hostel.

“I don’t feel right about staying in a five-star hotel when there are people who don’t even have a roof over their head,” he says.

As for the $250,000 award, he used the entire amount to help home health-care workers start their own business. His wife Norma had just had a stroke.

“The woman who was taking care of her was only making $8 an hour while the agency was making $18,” Taussig says.

“We give loans and provide a hand up, not a handout,” Taussig says. “I’m trying to make the poor into capitalists, to help them become self-sustaining, to give them a way to make a living.”

Since 1992, when he started the Untours Foundation, he has provided more than $6 million, in loans to support such ventures as NativeEnergy, which sells “green tags” to fund wind, solar, and methane power; strawbale housing on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation and Bionatur, an heirloom seed company born out of the efforts of the Landless Workers Movement.

“We look for really innovative things that have the potential to change the world,” says Elizabeth Killough, who works for Hal at the Foundation. “Hal is off the charts. I tell him I should pay HIM for the opportunity to work here. I used to be his consultant and when he asked me to work for him, I hesitated. Everybody needs heroes and I didn’t want to find out there was a dark side. But I’ve been here seven years now and he’s the real deal.

“Five years ago, he came to me and said, ‘Let’s make Media (Pennsylvannia where they’re headquartered) the first Fair Trade town in America. I laughed and couldn’t imagine what that would look like. I googled it just to humor him. And sure enough, there were fair trade towns in Europe. And we managed to get Media as the first Fair Trade Town in the U.S.or as they say in Europe, the first Fair Trade Town in the Americas.”

“He really walks the talk,” says his daughter, Marilee Taussig, who left corporate America to work for her dad’s company. “It’s an admirable way to live your life, but sometimes it’s hard to be a family member of someone who is such an idealist, someone who doesn’t believe in a safety net.

“I call myself the unheiress. If my dad had decided to leave me a million dollars, would I have turned it down? Absolutely not. But what he left me is something much richer and that is the ability to live what you believe in and put your money where your mouth is. It’s all well and good to talk about living simply, but it’s a whole other thing to live it.”

“Money is the least important thing a parent can give a child. My dad gave me integrity, a sense of humor and a sense of purpose,” Marilee says.

Marilee says the company itself is a real reflection of her dad’s beliefs. “It’s a nontouristy way of traveling.” He believes foreign travel means more if the traveler can live like the locals.

Taussig contends “Americans don’t really want to be herded about like sheep or cattle.”

His loyal customers, many who return year after year, agree.

As a boy, Taussig lived in a log house on a cattle ranch in Colorado. His mother made his underwear from flour sacks. After getting a college degree, he tried to get into the cattle business, but invested all his money in a bull that was sterile.

“I went broke and got fired before I found my calling,” Taussig says.

Taussig taught history at a high school for 10 years before taking a yearlong sabbatical throughout Europe. He and Norma and Marilee rented apartments, shopped in village markets and traveled by foot, bicycle, train, bus and boat.

“That was an educationally important year for me. It got me in deep touch with other cultures,” Taussig says. He wrote a book called Shoestring Sabbaticals and came up with the idea for Untours: a travel agency that enabled tourists to get to know a place intimately.

What does he think about AIG CEO’s making $17 million, Merrill Lynch brokers bringing in $32 million?

“I’m glad these issues are now being discussed. Piling up money doesn’t bring happiness. Having a huge bank account doesn’t produce a profound contentment in life,” Taussig says. “Wealth gets in the way of human kindness, joy and peace.”

Thanks guys. I must confess it hasn’t been easy. My friend Ivy who texts me a heart every day sent me this meme. 222b

Grief is a messy, complicated and ultimately life-changing process. But I do it with honor for Tasman McKay Grout and her beautiful vision of possibility and truth.

Never forget. Hug your loved ones close. And remind them how very much they are loved.

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