Martin Luther King – Pam Grout

Marching toward the land of freedom

January 15, 2018 24 Comments

“Let us hope that in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty. ”—Martin Luther King Jr.

In America today, we pause to celebrate one of my top heroes. Sorry Wonder Woman, you’re on the list, but Martin Luther King Jr., who has such a remarkable way with words, snags top billing in my writerly heart.

Everyone knows about his “I have a dream” speech. I’m betting your community has organized an event today where somebody’s going to read it. But this great man gave something like 450 speeches per year and wrote five books. Having a dream is only the beginning.

One of his key beliefs was spiritual purification. You can’t go out stirring up change until you’re clear inside, until you’re speaking Truth as the universe sees it. This is where A Course in Miracles comes in.

Lesson 15 says My thoughts are images that I have made.

It’s pretty hard to believe that what we’re seeing out there is the product of our thinking. Good news is you don’t have to buy it as this point. You just have to do the simple lessons. And to trust that in some not too distant tomorrow, as we surrender more and more of the past (all the stuff we so stubbornly believe is damned well true) our thoughts will begin to create a new dream.

Because as Martin Luther King Jr. so eloquently professes:

** Love transforms enemies into friends.

** Trust triumphs over hatred and fear.

** Spiritual upliftment is a better expenditure than defense.

** A person-oriented society out trumps a thing-oriented society

Let’s honor my man today who once said, “we are in dire need of creative extremists.”

Here’s to his dream of a beloved community.

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.

Why it’s time to be recklessly generous and relentlessly kind

July 13, 2016 15 Comments

“We need a million Martin Luther Kings to show up right now.”—Kyle Cease

Josh Radnor, the guy who played Ted Mosby on How I Met Your Mother, is one of my heroes. He meditates daily and knows the inner landscape (not the trappings of Hollywood) is the important thing. I thought it would be a good time to bring up one of his quotes, perhaps my favorite, about kindness.

Here’s what he said:

“It’s not our job to play judge and jury, to determine who is worthy of our kindness and who is not. We just need to be kind, unconditionally and without ulterior motive, even – or rather, especially – when we’d prefer not to be.”

When we choose kindness and generosity in whatever situation we find ourselves, to whomever happens to be in front of us, it opens a crack that enables us to see a whole different reality.

That tiny twist—a smile, offering a hand, even just being generous in thought—not only changes the inner landscape, but it creates a ripple effect. It reminds us, “Here’s how the world could be.”

Generosity doesn’t fit the narrative, not in a me-me-me world. And that’s the very thing that shakes up the old story, the very thing that flips the dominant paradigm.

Which is why Kyle Cease is spot on–the world is crying out for a whole country full of Martin Luther Kings.

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

“Abandon your belief in deprivation.”—Course in Miracles

October 4, 2013 8 Comments

“Martin Luther King, Jr. never said, “I have a complaint.”—Michael Beckwith

Before I head out in my cape and superhero costume (yes, the “Haul of Justice,” the 23rd Superhero Bike Ride starts this weekend), I want to share a couple cool stories.

I get reams of these manifestation stories and while I haven’t had time to sort through all of them (never fear, I DID start a file), I always like to share from time to time here on the blog because I find them inspirational.

So story #1:

Yesterday, I was interviewed by the incomparable Tamara Gold. She has a weekly talk show, Empowered Living. I say interviewed, but it was more like two BFF’s having a much-needed catch-up.

Anyway, she’s reading E-Squared, trying to figure out which new car to buy. She does a little research and wisely decides that, “Hey, I want a car that’s cool, has zero emissions and gets something like 265 miles per gallon.” So she’s doing the Volkswagen Jetta experiment (where you look for a particular car) and decides, “What the heck, might as well look for the car I intend to soon own.”

Well, her new car-to-be is a Tesla Roadster, a $57,000 all-electric sports car of which only a couple thousand have been made. To give you some perspective, Toyota sold 28,279 vehicles in April alone. What can I say? This woman like a challenge.

So, she asks for a sign and before the experiment is barely started, she sees not just one Tesla, but as she says, “A FRIGIN TRUCK LOAD! SIX TESLAS!!”

If you’re an officer of the law, please avert your eyes now because yes, she couldn’t resist pulling out her phone and taking this picture.

Story #2:

During our chat, Tamara asked if these principles work with kids. Which reminded me of this awesome email from Muskaan Sidhu, who calls herself “My biggest 11-year-old fan.” She gave me permission to share. Here’s what she wrote:

“Hi! I’m a girl, 11 years of age from Australia and me and my mum have been doing your experiments from your awesome book – Esquared. Everything you say in it makes soooo much sense and I can connect to every point you make! It’s incredible how successful your experiments are. For the first one, I really wanted an unexpected blessing from anything or anyone, and my best friend who I was currently in a fight with smiled at me! It was awesome! For the second experiment I wanted to see a bunch of flowers, and the following day she came up to me (WITH A BUNCH OF FLOWERS!!!) and said “do these look nice?”

As for the purple feather, I realized today at school that I was coloring in with a purple pen and I looked out and saw a bird. I actually didn’t even remember the experiment after a few minutes! It’s absolutely jaw dropping and I’m so glad they work!”

We shared a few emails (I mean, how can I resist an 11-year-old who writes this well?) where I later discovered that she and her old friend made up and, using these principles, she made an A on her science test, something she’d never done before, and is excelling in math. Needless to say, she was already a whiz at English.

So thank you, Tamara, and thank you, Muskaan.

Pam Grout is the author of 16 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality.