READING|RECOMMENDATIONS

Curl Up With These Truly Outstanding Stories I’ve Read Recently

From serious to funny, fiction to non-fiction, inspiring to calming- there’s something here for everyone

Today I started my last and biggest move since I left Philadelphia in August of 2020.

You can read about it, if you’d like, in the following story:

I spent almost 8 hours non-stop doing things related to this move- and it’s only Day 1.

I anticipate it being 10–12 days of doing moving related things every single day before I start to feel settled in my new place and can resume some semblance of “normalcy”.

Major moves are exhausting!

When I returned home, I took a 2 hour nap before I could even think about writing a story for today.

After I awoke, I quickly wrote a short form story. Once finished, I kept thinking about a few stories that I read recently and decided to share them because I felt they are all better than anything I could muster tonight.

They are in no particular order.

Enjoy at your leisure!

This story by Natasha Nichole Lake is one of the most raw, yet refined and utterly brilliant pieces of writing I’ve come across during my time on Medium.

If I could give her a reward, aside from my words of praise, I would.

We wanted to change the world. We never wanted to destroy it. With greed. With ambition wrapped in the plastic we throw in oceans because landfills are full. Pollution spilling into rural neighborhoods where asthmatic children play, unaware that poverty is poisoning them.

I am supposed to be my mother’s manifestation of the American dream. She left the comforts of her country. She left her mother and all the stability she’d ever known, to give me a better life. She didn’t come here so I could survive on antidepressants and binge Netflix because I’m afraid to go outside.

The following story by Richard Steele came as a surprise to me because I wasn’t tagged, although he did mention me, in his story. His way of writing and using words of which I am familiar in familiar ways never ceases to amaze me.

This is another one for those looking for a dose of inspiration.

Thus I come to my One Word for the New Me and the New Year. It neatly covers what has really been missing in my life, because everything else hinges on it; not completely, yet to a degree, because an empty container holds nothing but air which might start out hot but will cool down and be of no avail to anyone, in short order.

All of the other things and people I saw as necessary yet absent are more easily gathered when substance is present. I look back on my life and I don’t see all that much substance; I see excuses and justifications for why the substance is not extant. I see only one healthy way to ameliorate that condition:

This story by Ticapo is short, yet powerful.

It contains multiple gifts that made my day- then and now. I really look forward to watching this documentary and by going back to this story, I was able to answer her question that I forgot to answer the first time!?

While not ‘having much’ according to most people’s standards, the people in this documentary are able to live fully, modestly, and focus on what’s most important to them.

India stole my heart. This documentary made me be even more in awe. And I got to know more about the country I’m absolutely sure I will visit again.

The next 2 stories had be cracking up!

First, Misty Rae took me on a trip down memory lane to the land of the ‘80s.

I didn’t even realize how much I appreciate some of these priceless gems, some of which I still have, until I read her story.

Passing Notes: I’m not sure about anyone else, but I wrote more and read more notes than I did actual schoolwork. Notes were HUGE. They were the primary means of communication between kids during school hours. More often than not, these communications were surreptitious, secretly handed to each other during class while the teacher’s back was turned.

Notes were how we poured out our feelings. They were how we communicated the important issues of the day, things like did you see Jessie’s skirt? or what do you think of the new guy?

Last, but in no way least, JA Vassili wrote this CRAZY ASS AWESOME fictional story that had me enthralled from beginning to end.

I’ll never ever look at spiders the same again- nor will you- after reading this.

Greg Minispsterston Krystinski Oswald Crane awoke one day and looked around. He did not remember where he was or how he had gotten there. This was not unusual; Greg often awoke on strange couches. Today he was slumped on a green couch in a dimly lit room. Beneath his feet was a bare concrete floor and in his hand was an empty can of PBR. Greg lifted the beer to his lips and tipped his head back to be sure he’d got every drop. There was a drop, and he swallowed it. He looked around the room again. He determined for the second time he didn’t know where he was.

Simply finding excerpts from these stories to share put a big ol’ smile on my face, as I remembered how it felt to read them.

That reminds me of one of my favorite quotes.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou

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