READING TIPS

Stories you Shouldn’t Miss — Volume II

April edition of my favorite reads

As great essays are abundant on this platform but it is nearly impossible to find all those amazing writers and their artwork, I decided to share my own curated list of outstanding stories.

Every month.

And here is my selection for the month of April. In no particular order but the one I read the stories in. I wanted to cut the list by five in total but it was really hard this month and therefore you have to read 6 today.

But I promise you. It is worth it.

See yourself...

“In a time when Instagram is overflowing with selfies of people pursuing extreme outdoor sports in exotic locations, it’s nice to affirm that great adventure can be found close to home.” — Ray Wirth

And this is exactly why I loved Ray Wirth’s article. The essay is about adventure. The great outdoors. And it’s fun. But it is everything else but ordinary.

Ray goes on an adventure I wish I had joined him. With all the weirdness in between. Everything that isn’t ordinary sounds like fun to me.

“At least once each spring, my partner Leslie and I like to drive several miles up the road, launch our kayaks, and paddle four miles down the river to our local pond. We then walk back to the house to close the circle.” — Ray Wirth

Sounds like fun right? But read on. This story doesn’t go as expected…

We all know I fell in love with the African continent and yes, Ronald, I do think one can love an entire continent. And that is exactly why I love Jay Davidson’s stories of another time to another place.

In Africa.

A town I can’t pronounce and definitely not spell is where he went back to the good old trade.

“The last stall had two wooden crocodiles that I liked. The owner readily saw that the brass sculpture was more valuable than the wooden crocodile, and he agreed to the trade. The little croc is carved just crudely enough to be charming. I’m calling him Ousmane.” — Jay Davidson

Jay's articles aren’t about Instagram-worthy remote destinations or paradise-like beaches. His stories take you deep into the real experience of traveling to explore new cultures.

Yes, I’m a travel addict and as much as I love travel, I enjoy reading travel tales. Here’s another one. Meg MacMahon takes us on a night with the locals in Laos.

“‘Sit’, Mr Laos says, pointing to a wooden deck hanging over the water. A circle of bare-chested men sit cross-legged on the wood, watching a wrestling match on an old box television. I sit amongst them while Mr Laos disappears into the dark behind a growing bonfire to negotiate our cut.” — Meg MacMahon

And Janin and her never-ending conversations with the grumpy George never disappoint me. Two characters who couldn’t be more different from each other live together. Somehow.

And this time the topic of happiness came to daylight. Yeah, what is happiness?

“For me, happiness is a mindset. I believe that happiness is our choice and depends on what we want to see in life. Do we want to appreciate and be grateful for what we have, or do we prefer to worry about what we lack? Do we want to be happy or not?” — Janin Lyndovsky

Scott-Ryan Abt doesn’t just write great travel tales. He also talks about topics others avoid. He says out loud those things that needed to be said but nobody dares to do.

Fear.

Yes. He talks about fear.

“Why is it that there is always someone to be afraid of? Does our political system just require it? What about the economic one that we labour under? Who benefits from the creation of this fear? Who suffers from it?” — Scott-Ryan Abt

But Scott-Ryan doesn’t just talk about fear without offering solutions. He names tips on how to overcome the feeling of always being afraid of something. He sends us out to focus on the small things and not only rely on money. But read yourself…

“Be brave and don’t let them make you afraid. We are going to be fine.” — Scott-Ryan Abt

The next article isn’t fun to read. It will hurt. It will hurt to see what damage we humans are willing to do to the environment just to get another drop of oil.

Damage that won’t be able to be undone. If they do it.

Drill oil in one of Earth’s most fragile ecosystems. One with the largest density of animals. Where a river creates an inland delta and turns a desert into a wetland.

But what can we do? The small ones. We have no power against the oil companies. It seems. And so Jillian decided to write at least about it.

And I think I will too. Write about it so that nobody can say afterward they “didn’t know”.

Read below:

“In the article, Jeff claims that “About 40 percent of people in the delta region are employed directly or indirectly by wildlife tourism.” Tourism which brings in around 100 000 tourists per year.” — Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages

I hope you take your time to read through these stories and please let me know what you think of my selection and the essays these writers produced.

And in case you missed last month's selection, here is the link:

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