Counterweights: An Essential Practice for Holding Hope in a Heavy World

How can we possibly bear all the heaviness the world is throwing our way? Shannan's encouragement in these pages is to look for the counterweights. She quotes her father—a man handy with tools of all kinds—to explain: "From the time my siblings and I were small, he taught us that carrying something heavy becomes more efficient, more doable, if we carry something equally heavy in the other hand.” If the bad in the world is heavy in one hand, Shannan urges you to load up the other hand with goodness—those things that help bring some sense of steadiness to a wobbling world. Some of Shannan's favorite counterweights are thrifting, freshly washed sheets, anything pickled, and neighborly kindness, but this book includes countless invitations for readers to notice the good in their worlds. Shannan is no Pollyanna in these pages, she knows the hard is HARD and doesn't shy away from naming it as such. But is this still a world that sings sometimes? Indeed. I highlighted the heck out of this; I found it to be grounding and needed and I am highly likely to read it again soon in its entirety. (Shannan’s writing is rooted in her Christian faith but I believe her writing to be hospitable to a wide audience.)