It has been an interesting week, and as you receive this I am
still on the Big Island in Hawaii, preparing to deliver the keynote
speech at a major inter-island event here on Saturday night.

We have been in this astonishingly beautiful state since February 18,
and last Saturday were awakened at 6 a.m. with civil defense sirens
blaring and the hotel p.a. system carrying this ominous words: "This is
the duty manager speaking. A tsunami warning has sounded and all guests
are asked to evacuate the hotel immediately and move to higher ground.
Please leave your luggage behind and take only a few personal
possessions. This is not a test. This is an actual alert. Please
evacuate the hotel NOW. Do not panic or become alarmed. We have been
informed that the first wave is not going to hit until 11 a.m. There is
plenty of time to move to higher ground. If you do not have
transportation, transportation will be provided."

We were never
in any immediate danger, and I don’t want to paint a picture that
suggests we were, but it was an eerie feeling to be aroused out of a
deep sleep like that, and there were some faster heartbeats as Em and I
jumped up, dressed an quickly as we could, gathered our few things
("Make sure you have cash!" "Got it! Did you fill the water bottle?"
etc.), and made our way to the lobby.

Most of the people there
were waiting for buses, which eventually carried them to safe holding
places, like church halls and school gymnasiums. We were among the lucky
ones who got picked up by "locals" and taken to private homes high in
the hills. In our case, the sponsors of this weekend’s event sent a
representative, who took us to his home, 700 feet above sea level, where
he and his wonderful wife graciously offered us shelter, breakfast,
lunch, and good conversation while we awaited the first wave, predicted
to be anywhere between 8 and 12 feet.

As you must know by now
from news reports, Hawai`i sidestepped any real incident, the waves
dissipating before they got here, with the highest being about 3 feet,
and actually being greater in Japan—although even there the effect was
relatively minor.

All of this was because of the massive 8.8
earthquake in Chili, of course—one of the biggest quakes ever recorded
in the history of such records. And so again we see tremendous loss of
life (although not nearly as devastating as in Haiti in January) and the
deep anguish that accompanies that…and we see, again, a planet in
geophysical turmoil.

Some experts are telling us that we are
going to be seeing more and more of these kinds of environmental
disruptions in the months and years ahead, leading me to think that the
wonderful information in the latest book in the Conversations with
God
cosmology—When
Everything Changes, Change Everything
—has
come to us not a moment too soon.

If you have not had a chance
to see this book, have not yet read it, I do hope that you will do so
now. It observes that if we are to get through this time of
turmoil—political and economical and well as geophysical—we are
going to have to "change everything" about the way we hold life, about
the way we think about God, and about how we see ourselves in
relationship to each other and even to ourselves.

The book
explains in detail the Mechanics of the Mind and the System of the Soul,
and offers a remarkable combination of modern psychology and
contemporary spirituality in what it calls The WECCE Technology.
("WECCE" is an acronym for When Everything Changes, Change
Everything
) This is, essentially, a new way of approaching life
that can dramatically change the way change is affecting you.

As for my experience with the tsunami-that-never-was, I want to share
with you that it placed before me, up close and personal, the truth of
our own mortality. Life can be taken away from us on a moment’s notice,
and I hold with deep sadness in my heart the news of those who died,
suddenly and without warning, as a result of the earthquake in Chili. I
also hold each new moment that my own life brings me as an incredible
and continuing Gift from this Universe; a pure treasure from God. I am
grateful beyond words, and I truly hope to use every new minute I am
given in this life to give a gift back to the people in my life and the
people in our world.

Thank you, God, thank you, God, thank you,
God for this wonderful day, this wonderful hour, this wonderful
experience that I am calling my life! Grant that I may offer in each
nano-second a gift to life itself through the way I am living it.

Love
and Hugs,
Neale.

© 2009 ReCreation Foundation – http://www.cwg.org – Neale Donald
Walsch is a modern day spiritual messenger whose words continue to touch
the world in profound ways. His With God series of
books
has been translated into 27 languages, touching millions of
lives and inspiring important changes in their day-to-day lives.