“Conversations with God” Author to Speak at Foundation event

Neale Donald Walsch

PINEHURST – Modern-day spiritual messenger Neale Donald Walsch shares the experience of life-altering events with Pinehurst resident Brad Covington.

Both could have collapsed under the weight of their personal challenges, but instead found positive in the negative.

Now Covington is helping bring the best-selling author of the “Conversations with God” series to the Foundation of FirstHealth’s 2012 Promise of Hope lecture. The daylong seminar is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 15, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Convention Hall of the Pinehurst Resort.

Although best known for his “Conversations with God” works, Walsch will focus on the message of another book, “When Everything Changes, Change Everything,” during his Pinehurst appearance. According to Covington, it’s a message that “encourages people to look at things from a more positive state of being.”

“We can see the silver lining in the dark cloud, but we can also learn and grow from the experience,” Covington says.

Covington has experienced his share of dark clouds, some might say even more than his share. Since 2004, he has had two craniotomies for recurring brain tumors.

Like Covington, Walsch has also experienced the proverbial dark cloud, one that first presented itself after he broke his neck in a car accident.

Unable to work, Walsch eventually found himself homeless and living on the street. During that low period, he later told famed interviewer Larry King, he wrote an angry letter to God in which he asked questions about why his life was not working. His response, which seemed to come from a voice over his right shoulder, was, “Do you really want an answer to all these questions or are you just venting?”

Walsch then became aware that the answers to his questions were filling his mind. He wrote them down, and these “dialogues” became the “Conversations with God” books.

 “Conversations with God, Book I: An Uncommon Dialogue” appeared on bookshelves in 1995 and quickly became a publishing phenomenon, staying on The New York Times Best-Sellers List for 137 weeks. The succeeding volumes in the nine-book series also appeared prominently on the best-seller list.

The series has been translated into 37 languages, touching millions and inspiring changes in their day-to-day lives.

Walsch has also published 16 other works as well as a number of video and audio programs.  His Conversations with God Foundation is a nonprofit educational organization that is dedicated to inspiring the world to help itself move from violence to peace and from anger to love.

Covington attended his first Walsch seminar about two years ago. Through that acquaintance, he made the contacts to set the upcoming Pinehurst seminar in motion.  A follower of Walsch’s message of love and “positivity,” Covington calls himself a beneficiary “of the way we look at change.”

“I found my medical challenges to be the most important things that have ever happened to me,” he says. “If it were not for these experiences, I wouldn’t be the person I am. They helped me find out who I am. It all comes down to perception and perspective.”

”I think Neale does a good job of experiencing the positive,” he adds.

The Promise of Hope Lecture Series is supported through an endowed gift from a local couple to provide education for the community and clinical and medical staff members. Their wish was to provide hope and inspiration for those dealing with terminal or chronic illness. Tickets for the Sept. 15 Neale Donald Walsch program are $75, which includes lunch. To make a reservation, call the Foundation of FirstHealth at (910) 695-7510. A special room rate of $104 per night (lodging and breakfast buffet) is available at The Holly Inn in Pinehurst for those attending the program. To make a room reservation, call (800) ITS-GOLF and request a room for the Promise of Hope – Foundation of FirstHealth event.