"Counterweights" for Living in a Heavy World
A new book from Shannan Martin that doesn't disappoint.
There’s a brand new book out today that I want to tell you about! Counterweights by Shannan Martin is just the thing for anyone who feels weighed down by a lot of bad news around us (at home or in the world at large). Um, I have a feeling that’s most of us.
This isn’t a fix-it book but a way of helping us carry other things that offset or balance that heaviness. No quick solutions for letting go but more of a way to carry both good and bad as part of real life.
My review for the book is below, but what really showcases Shannan’s beautiful heart is this podcast interview with my friend Amy Fritz and Shannan Martin on the Untangled Faith podcast.
I encourage you to get your copy of Counterweights: An Essential Practice for Holding Hope in a Heavy World. *
My Review
Shannan Martin does it again with another book that hits right where I need it most. She says this book is her
“ode to ordinary abundance, a scrapbook of rest and resistance, and an invitation to consider your own. Heavy and light. Meaty and sweet. Just like life.” p. 17, Counterweights
Yes, that’s exactly it. We need to create moments in our reality where the resources we have at our disposal help us move forward when everything feels out of balance. I love the metaphor of carrying something of equal weight in one hand when carrying something heavy in the other. The author has always been about acknowledging the messy stuff. So this is not a book about starting a gratitude journal, although not bad if you love that. Shannan never gives pat answers to hard problems. Nope. She shows how she found counterweights in the messy stuff, loss, dissonance, and pain.
She really had me at Taylor Swift songs. If you know, you know. I love how she gives permission for both orthodox and unorthodox ways we find those counterweights.
Shannan blends together personal story with practical examples of looking for God and good in ordinary places. As with her other books, this doesn’t disappoint. It feels a bit like looking inside her commonplace book (a style of journaling) and finding myself there in the pages. Amid the stories, her lists of favorites, scraps of poems and songs, notes, and letters, there are lines that read as if she wrote them just for my spiritual healing. And for that, this book will be a tremendous counterweight for today’s burdens and a model to inspire a regular practice of examining my own weights and counterweights.
This book is for anyone who feels like the stuff happening around you is just too heavy right now.
If you aren’t already following Shannan Martin, check out her Substack called The Soup. She’s one of my favorite voices on Substack.
I still have a couple of one-month gift subscriptions that I can give out. Please message me directly if you’d like to claim one of those!
* Affiliate links to Amazon give me a small percentage of your purchase without costing you extra.
Shannan has so many beautiful layers and nuance and fire. She lives the metaphor of counterweights. I've learned so much from her.
Nothing like finding a slew of typos in your own post. Well, I guess you all know it wasn't AI now.