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Riding the Wave

Practicing caring connection, Sylvia Boorstein learns, can bring peace—even under the threat of natural disaster.Sylvia Boorstein

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ONE AFTERNOON in 1986, while I was on a two-week mindfulness retreat on the coast of Hawaii, the bell to end the meditation period rang only ten minutes after the session had begun. The retreat manager announced that she'd been notified by the Civil Defense office in Hilo that an earthquake off the coast of Japan had caused a tidal wave. The wave was crossing the ocean in our direction and was projected to arrive in three hours. "We have seventy people here," she said, "and only one car. Since there are no available buses to send from Hilo," she continued, "and we can't leave, the Civil Defense told us to take high ground and organize our supplies in case we get stranded."

We were living in two-story bungalows on a beach ringed by thick jungle. The best we could do to "take high ground" was go upstairs.

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