Karen Drucker – Pam Grout

I believe in fairies, love and infinite possibility

September 20, 2024 31 Comments

“Once you meet the God of love, you tend to fire all the others.”—Mirabai Starr

First, I want to say that I love you all SO MUCH. I love your comments, your insights, your willingness to join me on this crazy, rocking peace train.

I’m just home after an 8-day road trip with my mister. Our ultimate destination was Taz’s Hot Dirt, a regenerative farm that sits a couple hours north of Toronto. We had the great fortune to meet the magic woman behind the project that the 222 Foundation chose to honor in 2022.

Dawna Wightman is a dreamer, a creative, a nonstop force for good and a catalyst for new possibilities. She designed Taz’s Hot Dirt to not only feed people’s bellies, but to nourish the hunger of their soul. Volunteers harvest the produce and then take a bag of it to someone who could use a friend, someone who maybe doesn’t feel connected. Not everybody knows quite yet that it’s impossible to be separate or to be outside the circle of care.

I especially love that Dawna consults with Taz out at the farm and that they’re both expecting worker fairies any day. Don’t laugh. Penny Kelly at Lilly Hill Farms worked with a group of elves to produce 100 tons of grapes on 13 acres, an utter impossibility if you ask any viticulturist.

I realize these kinds of stories make me sound like a cuckoo bird, but I dig being what the “real world” deems a little crazy. My daily intention, in fact, is to free myself from all habits and “beliefs” taught to me by my culture, to relinquish all limitations.

As far as I’m concerned, the bedrock of reality is love and everything else is just an unfortunate perceptual habit. In my Course reading this morning, I was struck by the line that everything we see out there in the world (the chaos, the separation, the arbitrary viewpoints) is made out of the things we don’t want within ourselves, the things we can’t accept.

When we separate ourselves from life, begin to identify with a body, we start casting all we find “intolerable” out there.

The reason this is GREAT news is that, in truth, everything occurs in our own minds where we do have complete and total sovereignty.

The Amazingly Awesome 222 Benefit Concert is happening this Sunday at Unity Village with Karen Drucker, Greg Tamblyn and me. I posted a photo on FB of the three of us and announced it as the start of our World Tour.

FYI: It’s also the end of our World Tour, at least for this year. If you happen to be coming to this ginormous T.A.Z. (Totally. Amazing. Zone. –shoutout to Pamela Joy for the inspiration), I expect to receive a big hug.

Whatever you’ve got planned for this weekend, I trust that you will make it the very best one of your life. #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).

With a little help from my friends

August 20, 2024 37 Comments

“Your heart and my heart are very, very old friends.”–Hafiz

Happy Tuesday, beloveds! Thought I’d pop in today to share a couple things, all of which involve beautiful connections.

The first is a message from Taz who reminded me this morning that who I am–who we all are–is far greater than we think. She wanted me to know that each of us is WAY MORE wise, kind and joined together than we could ever imagine.

Our bodies which occupy…oh, I don’t know?…99 percent of our attention?…are temporary tools we have the privilege of using for a short while. Sorta like a hammer. But we should never forget they’re not the whole tool box.

I also want to give props to all of you who email me the most amazing things—from pictures of hedgehog feather dusters to amazing manifestation stories to praise for my words that sometimes make me blush, but always remind me why I write and why it’s so important to use our given “tools” to shine for the divine.

Yesterday, a filmmaker I met through Mike Dooley sent me an inspiring video of an otter who, after getting the attention of a human who was able to rescue his trapped mate, swam back to him and presented him with a thank you gift of a rock. An otter gave a human a tangible thank you gift!!!!! Maybe I can figure out how to share that here.

The last connection I want to highlight is a couple friends who are throwing a big party/concert/love fest for the Taz Grout 222 Foundation. It’s on September 22 at Unity Village outside Kansas City. If any of you are in the area (or if you feel like driving/flying/hot air ballooning in), please join us. I’ll be presenting along with Karen Drucker and Greg Tamblyn. They’ll be singing. I’ll just be dancing and celebrating and sharing a few thoughts on inner guidance and spacious aliveness.

Karen Drucker, whose music and words embolden us to forever embrace the wonders of life, is giving a retreat the weekend before so why not come for the whole three days? You can get more info here.

Greg Tamblyn, who might be the funniest singer alive (he’s also profound as Gandhi), is hosting a couple trips to Ireland. I keep trying to sign up, but they book up so fast that a couple years ago when four friends and I intended to go we ended up with a band we’d never ever heard of, but absolutely LOVED. Grace is funny that way. There’s more info here.

So that’s it for today, except for this final thought: You are part of an inscrutable love that’s all-encompassing and more real and vast than you’ll ever know while swinging the hammer.

#222 Forever!

Loved unconditionally

June 5, 2024 24 Comments

“Go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows.” — Rainer Maria Rilke

Welcome to my office where birds provide the soundtrack for my writing hours and where the trees and the flowers and even the weeds (according to an article I just read) strengthen my immune system and improve my cognitive function.

The study even suggested that time in nature slows biological aging so perhaps I should also post an after picture at the end of my workday.

All I know is that I love spending time outdoors and that I feel so alive when I wake up to the sun, go outside to gather up the petals and leaves and other natural gifts to make my morning mandala.

The only downside I can report is that a recent podcast interviewer requested I move my laptop back inside. Evidently, the birds were compromising the sound quality.

I still commune each morning (in writing) with my cosmic concierge and it’s becoming ever more clear why the message of being loved is repeated over and over and over again.

Being loved unconditionally–no matter how you look or what you do–is not a message often imparted. Even the best of parents convey an idea about the proper way to do things, the necessity of “being good.” I’m still unclear what being good actually entails.

Our culture continues the “you could always be better” program. You could make better grades, get a better job, find a better situation than the one you’re in now.

My guidance keeps pointing out that by waiting for that “better someday” I snub the unfathomable, beautiful now. Or as Rumi called it, “the infinite moment where everything happens.”

I ran across a line in the Course in Miracles the other day that confirmed the importance of thoroughly understanding how deeply I am loved. It said that until I wholly know with every fiber of my being how valuable I am, I will be unable to understand anything.

When we don’t see ourselves as unconditionally, whole-heartedly loved, it’s virtually impossible to walk out into the world unguarded and secure. Until that sinks in, we continue to harbor…oh, just a slight need to impress people, to act in ways that ensure they like us. Certainly wouldn’t be safe to just run around and start hugging everyone.

All our energy, whether we’re aware of it or not, is sucked into this futile pursuit, this unending self-improvement project.

So, yes, my morning writing tends to be a broken record, telling me over and over that, “It’s okay. You are forever loved no matter what you do. It’s okay that you ate all that buttered popcorn at the movie. It’s okay you didn’t get to the essay you’re working on. It’s ALL OKAY.”

I hope you, too, are getting confirmation of how gorgeous, talented and perfect you are.

I also want to share a couple upcoming events. On June 29, the day before I fly to England, I’ll be “sharing the online stage” with Lisa Natoli and Maria Felipe. Here’s a link to this event called, “Living in your True Nature.”

On September 22, the amazing Karen Drucker will be back in my hood where she, Greg Tamblyn and I will be hosting a free Happy Hour of Song and Stories to benefit the Taz Grout 222 Foundation. I’ll be sharing more about that in the next few weeks.

If I don’t see you at any of these heart-opening events, please know that you are deeply embedded in my soul. And that I love you no matter what!

#222 Forever!

Everything leans on everything else

September 13, 2022 20 Comments

“The only true privilege in life is to love.”– -Justin Faerman

I’m totally jazzed about meeting some of you at this Sunday’s Amazingly Awesome Benefit Concert for the Taz Grout 222 Foundation. It’s such an honor to be surrounded by so much support, so much love, so much possibility. Even if you are on the other side of the globe.

Because remember – it’s impossible to step out of the ocean of wholeness. There’s literally nowhere else you can go.

So thank you one and all for so richly blessing me on this wild and crazy ride. From wherever you might hail.

I’ve already gushed here on the blog about my joy at writing a song with THE KAREN DRUCKER! She of Tarzan calling fame.

And I’d be remiss in not mentioning one of the other musicians who will be joining us on Sunday. Greg Tamblyn and I have been friends for eons. When I taught a journalism class at Avila College, he kindly showed up for my student reporters to interview. I wrote about his hilarious song, “The Shootout at the I’m Okay, You’re Okay Coral” in my book, Art & Soul, Reloaded. And it was Greg who first introduced me to Evy McDonald who I’ve written about on the blog and, if memory serves, in one of my books. It’s a story about stepping away from the ego’s limited narrative and returning to the present and the wholeness of who we really are.

Here’s the scoop:

In 1980, Evy was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. By the time doctors finally determined her illness, she was, to use her own words, “a bowl of jello in a wheelchair.” The doctor told her, at best, she had six months to live.

After raging about the unfairness of it all for a day or two, she had this thought: “Since I’m dying anyway, why not use the short time I have left to finally learn to love myself unconditionally?”

For years, she despised her body. She was overweight, for one thing. The polio she’d had as a child left her with two withered limbs and well, she was hard-pressed to find anything she really liked about her physical body.

But she was determined. Three times a day, she’d roll her wheelchair to the mirror and sit naked. She wouldn’t leave until she’d find new positives to add to a list. Her hair was pretty, for starters. She decided that whatever it took, she was going to learn to accept herself. She also resolved to give all negative feelings and thoughts over to the bigger thing.

At some point, she crossed some kind of miraculous threshold. She actually began to feel love and compassion for herself. She began to see her body as a miracle of creation, to see herself as a blessed being who could experience joy.

Strength began to return to her limbs. She eventually began to walk, to feed and to clothe herself. She became the first person to completely recover from ALS and 40 some years later, she’s still ALS-free.

So whatever fabrication you believe is ultimate reality, be open enough to consider it might just have a few glaring holes.

Here’s the song and one more invitation to join us this Sunday in our extraordinarily epic quest to change the consciousness of the world. #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).

Stay close to the love

September 5, 2022 28 Comments

“Everything rises to truth.”—Emma Curtis Hopkins

Oh my gosh, you guys! I’m super excited and grateful and well, I probably oughta warn you right now: this post may get a bit annoying.

For one thing, I’m heading out tomorrow on my first travel assignment in a really long time. I’m going to the Yerkes Observatory (widely recognized at the birthplace of modern astrophysics), visiting Hugh Hefner’s first Playboy Bunny Club (now a 5-Diamond Resort and Spa), ziplining, hitchhiking with one of the country’s last mailboats (it delivers mail to the old Gilded Age mansions on Lake Geneva) and well, generally having a ball with a bunch of crazy travel writers.

Later this month, we’re finally dedicating the Taz Grout Library that the 222 Foundation built in Nepal and, in less than two weeks, the incomparable Karen Drucker is coming to town for the Amazingly Awesome Benefit concert. I recently learned that Karen launched her piano career on the piano of none other than Carole King. I already knew she’d won a Tarzan calling contest with Carol Burnett when she was 14, but how was I to know that she later babysat for Carole King’s kids?

However, the main reason I’m bursting at the seams with joy is because it feels like I’m finally breaking up with the story in my head. And by the story in my head, I’m referring to the cultural fabrication that used to run my life. I no longer identify with much of anything my ego tries to spoon feed me. Notice I’m not saying my ego quit trying to control the narrative. I’m saying I no longer buy its tiny, tidy lies. At least most of the time.

For a long time, the ego’s story seemed normal, the way life was. Of course, I nodded obediently when it suggested that my job was to “find” spirituality, that I needed to seek happiness and joy.

But now I see that all those things I so dutifully attempted to forge connections with already exist within me. My natural state is happiness and joy. I’m discovering this raw, unnamable current of peace is inescapable once you break up with the ego and its desperate fabrication that something is missing, that things aren’t fair.

As I said, I’m a bit giddy with joy. But that’s okay. Because that’s who I authentically am. #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).

The brilliance of not having a clue

August 23, 2022 16 Comments

“Throw your dreams into space like a kite. It could bring back a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.”–Anais Nin

I’m a sucker for a good manifestation story. And two recently plopped into my inbox that I’ve decided to share because they’re both Exhibit A in demonstrating the power of letting go.

While most of us are great at setting intentions, creating vision boards and choosing the manifestation of our dreams, few of us are savvy enough to stop there. Rather, we make an intention and immediately follow up with “our plan” for how this is going to happen.

Rarely, if ever, does it happen that way.

The universe, thankfully, has a gazillion and 222 ways to deliver our blessings, ways that we, with our best laid plans, can’t even begin to conceive.

For example, my new friend Joe (I love that so many of you send me emails) was working at a shipyard when first introduced to the Course in Miracles. His co-worker, a zealous ACIM fan, shared so many miracle stories that Joe decided he needed his own copy. He could, of course, have trotted down to the nearest bookstore or ordered it online. But instead, he simply decided “I HAVE to have one.” Shortly thereafter, he came to work to find 100 or so lockers installed in a long empty hallway. At random, he opened one of the lockers and there, on the top shelf, was a brand spanking new leather-bound copy of the Course in Miracles. It even had gold leaf pages. He didn’t mention whether or not his name was etched into the front cover.

Another E-Squared reader, after happily manifesting blue cars and butterflies, decided to up her game with purple dragons. Sure, she saw a stuffed purple dragon at a toy store and counted that as a win, but recounted that she had asked for dragonS, as in more than one.

Later that week, after a thunderstorm, Mary’s husband invited her outside to enjoy a sunset. It was so stunning that she ran to get her camera. While reviewing the pictures the next day she noticed that clearly outlined against the sweeping bright orange and magenta clouds were two well-formed purple dragons.

The moral of these stories is that our limited brains are not equipped to understand the infinity of the universe. Not only that, but we’re trained from a very early age to cut off large parts of our consciousness. I’ve often compared it to donning a pair of Spanx. We squeeze our immense beautiful selves—our radiant, multidimensional connection to all that is–into a tight, often uncomfortable belief system that thinks it knows best.

What I now know is that “not having a clue” is my best strategy for approaching most everything, leaving a wide open stage for the universe to show off its marvels.

If you’re anywhere near Kansas City on September 18, I’d love to meet you (and so would Karen Drucker and all the other fabulous musicians) at the Amazingly Awesome 222 Foundation Benefit Concert at 4 p.m. at Unity Temple on the Plaza. It’s going to be epic. #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).

Let freedom reign

July 4, 2022 17 Comments

“You have an option in every moment to look around and see survival or look around and see life. You’ll be right either way.”—Kerri Lake

Today is the day we here in America celebrate our freedom. I’m aware that some of us aren’t exactly feeling it, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to remind myself (and anyone who happens to read along) that true freedom lies, 100 percent of the time, in my mind.

No one can take that away. No one else can make me feel unsafe or less than. No one else can make me worry. And I remind myself that clarity never shows up in anger or distress and that my thoughts do not have the power to hold onto me. I’m the only one who can hold onto my thoughts.

So today I celebrate the liberty of letting my thoughts go and resting in peace, freedom and trust.

I also want to give you a head’s up that on September 18 (put this on your calendar now!!!), Karen Drucker, Greg Tamblyn and a bunch of other musicians are throwing a big benefit concert for the Taz Grout 222 Foundation that is actively working to change the consciousness of the planet. It’s Sunday afternoon at the Unity Temple in Kansas City. I’ll be saying a few words (although everyone who participated in the recent Magical Mystery Manifestation Adventure knows that nothing lifts your vibe like Karen’s music) and well, it’s going to be a rollicking good time. As I’ve been known to promise, “All Heaven is Going to Break Loose.”

Have a groovy 4^th everyone. Make it the best one of your life. #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).

I could see peace instead of this

March 13, 2020 43 Comments

“In a time of crisis, we all have the potential to morph up to a new level and do things we never thought possible.”– Stuart Wilde

Hey, team, thought it might be a good time to review ACIM lesson 34. As I write in my book, “Today’s mantra is an all-purpose elixir. I use it at all times, in all situations.”

No matter what happens, no matter how bad things look, I remind myself that, “I could see peace instead of this.”

I’m in no way beholden to see peace. There’s no pressure to give up my perception. But I AM asked to raise peace as a possibility. No matter how remote it may seem, it helps to admit that “I COULD see peace instead of what I’m currently seeing.”

It’s a reminder that perception starts in our minds.

So while you’ve probably been lectured a million times in the past couple weeks on how to properly wash your hands, I’d like to offer the following 20 seconds on how to properly disinfect your mind.

1. Distance yourself from fear.We can stop or slow down the highly contagious disease of fear by reducing contact with our biggest enemy–internal thoughts of OMG! We’re doomed.

We can use this time to go within, to imagine a better world, to send love and peace to each of our brothers and sisters throughout the world. We can use this time to create, to envision a world and a government that, instead of focusing on economic stimulus, focuses on love and humanity and equality for all.

2. Stock up on some perspective. The media loves to talk about the “deadly” new virus, but I’d like to point out that, even at its most virulently projected mortality rate (and we still don’t have precise figures), 97.5 percent of those who get it make a full recovery. Just like we do from many other illnesses. That’s not to say we shouldn’t take precautions. As Jack Kornfield likes to say, “Remember your Buddha nature AND your social security number.”

3. Empower your internal pharmacy. Cell biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton says stress is a contributing factor in 95 percent of all illness and disease. So we can best inoculate ourselves by watering seeds of possibility, not worse case scenarios. A calm nervous system fosters a strong immune system. I recently heard the expression, “Proceed as if there is not a problem” and remember your body is resilient and has self-healing superpowers.

I’ll end with this wonderful video by my friend, Karen Drucker that proves we can send out love vibes even when washing our hands.

https://www.facebook.com/KarenDruckerMusic/videos/139448827373146/

Big, fat juicy thanks all around

November 5, 2019 121 Comments

“If you have the right music very loud on the radio, you get about 50 more miles from your tank.”—Hunter S. Thompson

It’s gratitude month, my friends. And as I do every morning with my possibility posse, I simply must share three amazingly awesome things that recently transpired.

Numero uno. Dr. Christiane Northrup who may just be the most generous person in the world recently made an Instagram video about my new book. My editor asked her to possibly provide an endorsement (after all, she’s a well-known and very famous expert) and wow! Not only did she provide kudos, but she made this fun little video, completely unprompted. She even said this was the first time she’d ever been able to embrace A Course in Miracles and she wanted my book (when it comes out in January) on her nightstand. As I said, WOW!

Second really cool thing is that Karen Drucker, the uber famous touring musician, speaker and retreat leader (and winner of the Tarzan calling competition when she was 13) has offered to throw a benefit concert for the 222 Foundation.

The Unity Temple on the Plaza has agreed to host this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity on May 3 in Kansas City. Karen, who will be playing and singing songs from her 15 albums, will present along with Greg Tamblyn, me, Emmy-nominated Stowe-Good and other like-minded friends. And, just so you know, we’ll be presenting the song Karen and I wrote called, “Something amazingly awesome is going to happen to me today.”

We are hereby affirming that this consciousness-bending show will alter the world forevah!!! The 222 Foundation is all about moving the needle and this benefit concert is guaranteed to rev up the engine. Make plans now to be there.

Third reason I can barely sit here in my chair is that an auction has just begun for the 52 paintings that were created by the German artist, Sigrid Drobner, for the 222 Foundation.

flower2 After Taz passed last October, this artist who I had never met promised to paint a special flower (and make a 3-D butterfly) every week of the year in Taz’s honor.

People sometimes say they’re going to do things, but this amazing artist actually followed through. She sent me one of these gorgeous paintings every single Saturday for 52 weeks. I can’t even begin to express how much her generosity has meant to me, how often it picked me up when I was wondering what in the heck I’m still doing on this planet.

And now she is auctioning them off with ALL PROCEEDS going to the 222 Foundation. Here’s what she says: “If anybody wants to make an offer, they can easily write an email to my address s.drobner@buntezeiten.de.” The auction, she says, will end December 1.

Again, my friends, never forget that support, love, generosity and abundance is the reality of the world. We simply have to let go of old school ideas that tell us otherwise.

I love and appreciate you all SO, SO much. I’d love if, in the comments section below, you share three of your own blessings. Let’s keep watering those seeds. course experiment

Back to the Mothership

July 15, 2019 132 Comments

“Say yes to revealing an unseen energy that surrounds us, that we’re actually a part of. Our soul yearns to witness and experience this nonphysical energy, not only for us to fully heal, but also to make the absolute most of our lives.”—Christina Rasmussen

In my ongoing efforts to figure my life out (now that I’m a childless mother), I have concluded that, above all else, I need to write, to create. When I don’t, I tend to get cranky. You’d think I’d have mastered this daily ritual by now. After all, I wrote a whole book about it. Ever since second grade, when I wrote and illustrated “Paddy the Penguin,” I’ve known creativity is the thing that makes me feel most alive.

Even in the depths of my grief, I felt better when I wrote—whether a letter to Taz, a blog post or the book that comes out beginning of next year. So, I’m making a commitment to myself (and to those of you who have kindly put your trust in me) to resume a more consistent blogging schedule. As you can imagine, I have a few things I need to say.

I’ve been on a pretty intense journey the past nine months as I attempt to move beyond the physical realm, to connect to that bigger thing that feeds my creativity, that keeps me in sync with Taz, that offers a deep well of healing and peace. In the interest of transparency, you should probably know that some days I still struggle to hoist myself out of bed.

Luckily, Taz keeps sending signs and, among other things, she and a wonderful medium named Steffany Barton and I are toying with the idea of teaming up to write a book. And the 222 Foundation is steaming full speed ahead. Look for the Call for Proposals for the 2020 grant to be announced soon.

The amazingly awesome Karen Drucker has offered to sing a benefit concert for the 222 Foundation. My new friend Sigrid Drobner keeps painting weekly flowers with 3-D butterflies to auction off for the Foundation.

I have also gotten a lot of sustenance from all of you—book suggestions, postcards from the Camino de Santiago, sweet emails. Please know I value each and every one.

I was bragging to the Hay House marketing team this morning about all the music suggestions you sent. At last count, I’ve received more than 400 happy songs. All I had to do was ask. The team requested that I ask another favor. They want me to inquire about your favorite podcasts. Which podcasts do you like best, listen to most often? Let me know in the comments below.

Thank you again from the bottom of my patched-up heart. I love you and always will.

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.