READING TIPS

Stories You Shouldn’t Miss — Volume IX

November edition of my favorite reads

Every month I dread this part and time. I know I want to put together this list of my favorite reads and yet I also know I have far too many sitting in my list.

Of course, I could name them all here but I know with the short attention span of our only reader, the more stories I list, the lower the chance they will be read. This is why I am trying to find a sweet spot somewhere between highlighting and showing appreciation to those writers who created brilliant pieces but also not overloading the reader by stepping onto my page right here.

Talking about which, Medium has once again brought out a new feature and while many have been baffling, ranting and complaining about everything that’s done out here, I don’t. I like their latest changes and in general, I appreciate their constant effort trying to improve the platform for writers and readers alike.

The only constant in life is change.

And if you don’t like it out here, nobody forces you to stay.

For me, the biggest plus on this page is that it is ad-free and to keep it this way, Medium created a new membership tier called the ‘friend status’.

If you haven’t heard of it yet, the new status is there to benefit writers and give readers on the platform a chance to pay their favorite writers they read four times more than with the normal membership.

Our team of editors at Globetrotters has jumped aboard the new program as one unit. We love the idea behind it and want to support our writers more through our reading and engagement.

And while I am writing this, I am informing you I shared friends’ links of all the stories below so that everyone can read them. Don’t worry, even if you are not part of the ‘friend’ membership yet, you will still get paid if members read your work. But this way all my readers can click on the stories below.

But this was enough of an introduction. Let me get to the point and share my ten favorite reads of November:

I want to start this list with one of my favorite writers and one of the first ones I haven’t just followed when landing on this platform but built a very close virtual relationship with.

While our lives couldn’t be more different, the joy and passion for nature and photography have brought us together and connected us on another level.

Dennett hasn’t had it easy in the past few years and yet she has been one of my most loyal and truest readers despite all the hardships she was facing. She has pushed me to become a better photographer while looking to find joy in the small things in life through the photo-a-day challenge while she, herself, also has improved her photography skills.

Below is a very short post with one picture only but her loving poem sums it all up. Her slice of paradise is right at her doorstep. And I’d love to sit there one day and watch ducks, squirrels and birds come by.

The next story is a piece of art my editor friend Jillian Amatt created while back in Canada. Her sense of art and creativity is amazing and I just admire how much love for detail she shows in everything she makes.

Are you looking to upcycle something while giving your home a new style? Look no further, I’m sure Jill’s story will inspire you to get creative yourself.

“After a bunch of adjusting and trimming the dangles to match, I got busy with the fun part — decorating it. Using different bits and pieces from around the house, I was able to fill it up with a couple of plants and ornaments. Plus, we put one of her sister’s paintings on it.” — Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages

Another editor friend of Globetrotters has only recently gotten into the passion of photography and while you might have missed her inspiring articles for a few weeks, she was out there, in nature, capturing the beauty of the great outdoors.

I can’t believe how quickly she picked up on the art of photography, learning along with camera settings also the ins and outs of Lightroom, an editing program for those not familiar with the word. Something I haven’t even touched on yet.

In the article below she displays a great collection of birds and early sunrise shots as she is not one to stay up late and rather embraces the first light of the day.

Diving into photography is also a way for her to find purpose in life and to be happy. We all need hobbies and activities that make us smile.

“I need to grow as an individual to feel purpose. Feeling purpose is key to my sobriety. When I start to feel low about myself, I am in a danger zøne and I don’t want to be in that space.” — Michele Maize

A woman who certainly doesn’t care what others think as she has chosen the harder path but the one bringing her to the place that makes her happy had to face a lot of hardships and setbacks within the last few months taking a peak when her farm in Australia burnt down in a wildfire leaving her nothing but the house standing.

Despite everything that is happening to her, she has this inspiring mindset that is the reason why she is still standing upright and why she has gotten so far in life.

Either way, her next article is a very touching read where she shares a bit of the relationship she had with her grandfather but also why we should listen to the elder generations filled with experience and wisdom. They can teach us a lot.

“I have never said, “I wish I knew this when I was younger”. In fact, there is nothing “I wish I knew it earlier”. When I hear people saying, “I wish I knew it 20 years ago”, my first thought is, “Then why didn’t you listen to elders and their stories? This is not a groundbreaking discovery. My grandpa told me this when I was little…” — Janin Lyndovsky

Before moving on to my long list of travel stories, I would like to highlight one other piece that almost brought me to tears. It’s a loving story of a woman grieving for her late mother who finds nothing more than a simple recipe.

But that recipe along with the unique handwriting of her mother and her own drawings as a child in that very old and handwritten recipe book are exactly the kind of comfort she was seeking.

“My favorite was the handwritten recipe collection she started in 1944 in a requisitioned accounts book. Rendered in elegant, cursive loops, her words glided across yellowing, blue-lined, satiny pages via the conduit of a fountain pen.” — Annie Forbes Cooper

Now I am moving on to a woman sharing bits and pieces of her life or let’s say, stories she collected while exploring the world. Those stories are the ones she seeks when wandering about. Those are the ones making a day special.

This woman is a wonderful writer and her narrative will capture you within her first few lines. I promise you won’t regret reading the piece below. It is very inspiring.

“Their fingers nimbly flying, they wove rows of tiny braids while showering me with small happenings in their lives. The school they attended, the languages they spoke, their family members and the customs in Essaouira, the nearby town where they lived. Their arranged marriages were a big topic. They couldn’t get enough of hearing I was free to marry anyone I chose. They were taken aback I didn’t need my father’s permission to travel.” — Rebecca Romanelli

And just as the world is opening up again and tourists are going crazy on traveling to all the places around the globe finding the most remote and hidden spots, I want to share a piece asking for more mindfulness and respect when wandering about.

Paul wrote this very thoughtful and inspiring piece and I think of all us can just sit back for a moment and take in the privilege we live on being able to travel.

Treat travel as a privilege and be respectful to the country you are visiting. That is all he is asking for and I hope that is not too much.

“The more we start viewing travel as an experience to be shared, not serviced, the less entitled we’ll be and the more we’ll treat it with the respect and veneration that it deserves. You wouldn’t trash your own backyard so don’t go trashing someone else’s just because you’re not the one who is going to have to clean up the mess.” — Paul S. Marshall

If you’ve been around for a while you will know I admire this writer and his stories on traveling through New Zealand just before we touched down in the country.

But Tim moved on and found some very interesting pieces of art in Paris. Have you ever seen mosaics in cracks in the streets? I certainly haven’t but find his discovered treasure incredibly creative.

“This kind of art fills me with joy for the human condition. It also heightens my senses for whatever else might be hidden right in plain sight.” — Tim Ward, Mature Flâneur

Brad never publishes a piece that isn’t polished to perfection and written in a captivating way. I highlighted this month a few of his stories as they were very different and yet fascinating in their own way.

He was debating the question on where we should or shouldn’t travel in “Where Shouldn’t You Go?” and spoke about being thankful for the small things in life in “It’s Always Thanksgiving When I Travel”.

But the one standing out to me the most was a story about hiking through the bush in southern Africa and celebrating Christmas with strangers after finding the far rock paintings.

This story is also about endurance and stepping far out of someone’s comfort zone. Having a strong mind and believing in oneself can push us to get a lot further than we think.

“I collapse at the base of the most prominent hill, in a sandy camping area, and vow not to move again. The blisters on my feet have long been ruptured. I’m dizzy from lack of water. I feel like such a wimp. Lance looks at me indifferently and wanders off to explore.” — Brad Yonaka

The next writer took me first this month into the Himalayas with his article “A Blessing in Shangri-La” and shares a lot of insights into the life and struggles of the locals up in the mountains in “Finding Purpose in the Himalayan Heights”.

But the story that stood out to me the most is the one he talks about hiking between the border of Albania and North Macedonia where he was hired as a photographer for the trip.

Hiking in such a remote and wild area in Europe must have been an incredible experience and made me long to go down there myself.

“Given all of the above, what made this experience truly unforgettable was the novelty of getting to experience this virgin, unknown hiking path alongside the very people who have poured their time and energy into it.” — Matthew David

Those were my favorite reads of November and if you read them all, I send a big thank you and virtual hug across the globe.

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

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