Tall tales and other thoughts from storyteller, sailor and nomad Dennison Berwick. "Kuan Yin" is his 32-foot go-anywhere home.
Posted in Labrador, Life skills, Sailing on Sep 2nd, 2010
Savouring a small personal achievement.
With good reason, rounding Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America is still regarded as a major accomplishment for any sailor. Storms (one category above mere gales!) can rage for days with waves reaching 80 – 100 feet high. Numerous ships and countless sailors have lost their lives in [...]
Posted in Books/Language, Life skills on Jun 10th, 2010
Journalist Michael Pollan has written three books on food. His newest (published in paperback in December 2009) is called “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual”. It’s a list of guidelines about food – real food, how to identify it and know what is not food, but what Pollan calls “edible food-like substances”?
How conscious are you about [...]
Posted in Life skills, Reportage/Stories on May 2nd, 2010
I’ve spent many hours over the past winter away from the boat studying the impending energy crisis. Is “peak oil” real? What might be the effect if oil production cannot be increased while world demand grows at 3% per year?
And I’ve come to the conclusion that no alternative sources of energy are anywhere close to being [...]
Posted in Books/Language, Life skills, Reportage/Stories on May 1st, 2010
This book is one of the classic must-read books for any aspiring writer and it is one I have enjoyed reading and rereading over many years. Dorothea Brande wrote her ground-breaking book in the 1930s. Style of writing have changed enormously since then. But what it takes to become a writer has not. From my [...]
Posted in Life skills, Sailing on Apr 30th, 2010
Every sailor fears the sea (and those who don’t are too dangerous to crew with). But long before we cross an ocean or meet our first typhoon we must face a thousand smaller challenges of sailing and navigation – any one of which can torment us with apprehension, even fear.
Making our first passage on our [...]
Posted in Life skills, Sailing on Mar 15th, 2010
Even when “Adventure” is our middle name, we often shrink from making too drastic decisions that would really cut our lives adrift from the sameness and security that we also like to enjoy day to day. And how can anyone just “sail away” when they have children and want to give them the best of [...]
Posted in Life skills, Solitude on Mar 4th, 2010
If you haven’t already heard of the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve, at the north-west tip of North America, chances are very good that you will be hearing a lot about the Reserve from oil companies and politicians pushing to get the area opened up to drilling for oil. But here’s a great new documentary about [...]
Posted in Books/Language, Life skills on Feb 24th, 2010
You’ve probably heard the word “Tao” (or “Dao”) or seen it written on a t-shirt. And if you’ve ever wondering what it really means and what the concept from China is all about, here is an excellent introductory book.
The book isn’t trying to sell the ideas or convert anyone. This is a straightforward explanation of [...]
Posted in Life skills on Feb 15th, 2010
Don’t get me wrong. Money is important. No-one denies that. The better question to ask oneself is HOW important is it? If it’s very important, is it the most important aspect of your life, or just something that’s very important along with lots of others high priorities, like health and love?
And if you had so [...]
Posted in Life skills, Reportage/Stories on Feb 14th, 2010
Valentine’s Day – tens of milions of people around the world will be sending cards, red roses, boxes of chocolate and taking their “most significant other” out for fun today. It’s the day of love, romance and happy endings.
And one person has come to embody this marketing tradition more than any other – Cupid, the [...]
"Serendipity" is the art of finding something valuable or delightful when you're not looking for it. It's how you might also define living life as an adventure - which is something I seek to do everyday - and accepting whatever happens.
