This week I get to hang with some of the most awesome people in the world at one of the most beautiful places in the world. If you’ve read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years then you know about Bob Goff’s Lodge in British Columbia. It’s the only place in the world where I get no cell coverage and couldn’t care less.
My absolute favorite place in the world is behind Chatterbox Falls. Every year, friends and I cross the frigid river, climb back behind those rocks, get back behind the waterfall where the force is so strong you can’t breathe, then literally walk right through it. It’s the closest you can come to dying and going to heaven. A few broken toes later and you have the memory of a lifetime (Please don’t do this. There’s a sign right next to the falls saying how many people have died. It’s up to 16 or something) but I’m not married and have no family so I get to do these things.
Regardless, I’ll be off the grid, recharging, remembering that God made the world and we made the city and fighting to bring a little more of what God made back into the stuff that we made. Try to do good work while I’m gone. Much love!
traveling mercies and thanks for writing that book. may God bless you even as you have been such a blessing.
Ditto Joules! (and fancy meeting you here)
Don, I LOVE your writing. and i LOVE the fact that you’re running away for some good nature and good fellowship. and i am reticent to even mention this because, good heavens, you can’t write a damn thing without SOMEBODY taking something you said out of context and taking it in the worst possible way. I always feel sorry for you and the ridiculous nonsense you have to endure. and while i completely embrace the spirit of this post, i can’t ignore the pebble in my shoe….dude. it’s “I COULDN’T care less.”
Ha. Have a fab trip
I know you don’t reccommend it, but I think maybe I would! I mean..not death, but at least coming so close to it that you shiver and squirm… I am not sure why but it is almost like we forget we are alive until we are in nature or under massive waterfalls. God’s craftsman ship is far greater than our own, leaving cityscapes is a good thing, I applaud not only your choice to be there, but your reflection on it, as well.
I just opened up that book to read it for the second time! Hope your toes come out ok.
“God made the world and we made the city” Haha. I love that line! And I’m jealous that I won’t be experiencing this. Enjoy!
you DO have family, your mother would really miss you
Yeah, and what about that newly engaged girl you’ve been hanging out with?
I know we Christians are not suppose to covet but man I’m coveting your vacation. Have a splendid time. Be safe because we would miss all your great writings and you inspire me, so have a great time !!!!!
I did read that book and incidentally emailed Bob Goff who put me in touch with a woman in Uganda who has this amazing organization. My husband and I are currently raising funds to head down there for a year. Enjoy your time with an incredible person in a beautiful place! Peace!
Breathe it in, Don. Breathe it in.
Near death experiences, nature, and good friends? Sounds like the perfect getaway, man. Enjoy your time off, and celebrate the fact that I have a package for you consisting of a letter and some coffee beans when you come back. I guess there is a problem though: how do i forward these to you?
Have fun enjoying some whitespace, Don!
I was seriously just at Malibu, Canada, for the last 7 days – with about 100 kids from California! We were completely disconnected from the world (which was actually one of the highlights from the kids). The most beautiful place in the world – so true! Chatterbox falls is awesome – the inlet – amazing.
When I tell kids about Malibu, I describe it like this: it’s like Yosemite on one side – Tahoe on the other – with a beautiful inlet that you can wakeboard or waterski on – let alone, explore on a kayak. Oh – and there’s a Young Life camp right in the middle of it all. Good times!
Hope you have a wonderful recharging time. Wave at the YL kids as you pass by!
Jer
Have a great time in beautiful nature, Don!
My family was at Malibu this Summer while my husband served as Camp Doc. What fun to read this post and be able to imagine exactly where you were. I just read Blue Like Jazz while we were there and started following you as a result. Small world.
Hi! I just finished Blue Like Jazz! It changed my life! … It’s definitely what you would call “life changing”
Thank you for writing it!
I was just there last month. 3 boats plus us at the dock. It was pouring with rain but the falls are mesmerizing. Was hard to drag myself away.
Love, love, love this — “remembering that God made the world and we made the city and fighting to bring a little more of what God made back into the stuff that we made.”
I love the phrase, ” God made the world and we made the city and fighting to bring a little more of what God made back into the stuff that we made.”
It think our hearts do hear God calling us away from the hustle and Bustle, both phycially, mentally and emtionally, to a quite place. I hope that God fills you so completely that you come back and find that people are standing near you, in the puddles of run-off!
Hey Don!
I was working at Malibu while you were up there. I just got back today, actually, from a 4 week assignment. The Goffs had us Summer Staffers over for dinner soon after you left and he told us about going behind the waterfall. Sounds scary and fun! I definitely took a picture of that sign you were talking about. Jumping in the inlet is as crazy as I get up there. It’s a very hard place to leave. You are so right- it’s a great place to recharge and get back to the actual real world, the one God made. I love being away from the internet and phones there.
I don’t know if you’ve talked to any of the Malibu staff, but they all call the inlet a “thin place” because the space between heaven and earth there is so thin. I wholeheartedly agree. I think the Princess Louisa Inlet just might be heaven! I wish everyone had the chance to go up there. It is just wonderful.
Hahaha. “I’m not married and have no family so I can do these things.” Love it! That is my reason far too often…
I acknowledge the fact I’m a little late with this response, BUT….I’m not married and have no family of my own either so that’s all the more reason why you need to keep yourself intact….so I’ll still have your amazingly authentic ponderings to read and chew on throughout my days! Reading “Searching For God Knows What” as we speak. It’s refreshing to know when I open the book and turn each page, what I read is a reflection of the heart of the author. What it’s not is a compilation of words that are written simply to pacify the minds of popular opinion. The more of your books/blogs I read, I am finding you and I seem to think very similar thoughts. It’s a deep place our minds seem to go. It’s a place that can be kind of scary. It’s a place most people like to only keep at a surface level. But it’s the main place Christ wants us to go….to the heart of the matter. Thank you for being courageous enough to go to a place most men aren’t willing to go! You’ve raised the bar! Keep it up! Blessings to you….