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

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In life, there are moments that are terrible and moments that are sublime. Most of our lives fall somewhere in between--the ordinary hours crammed with small griefs and pops of joy. We move through the world with one fist full of possibility and the other clutching panic. It's easy to slip into the belief that the life we dream of is waiting somewhere past the daily grind. But this is our actual life; we only get to do it once. So much is out of our control--but not everything. What can we do today to offset the heaviness and remain upright and hopeful through it all?

With humor, humility, and a voice all her own, Shannan Martin introduces you to the heart-changing concept of the essential practice of holding both the good and the bad with honesty and hope. She shows you how to notice the ordinary, accessible delights hiding in plain sight--reminders that even in tough times, life can be beautiful and deeply good.

If you're overwhelmed, weary, or burned out, Counterweights is your invitation to receive the chaotic abundance of being alive, cultivating strength and joy along the way.

240 pages, Paperback

Published March 24, 2026

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Shannan Martin

7 books337 followers

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5 stars
306 (51%)
4 stars
195 (32%)
3 stars
71 (11%)
2 stars
22 (3%)
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6 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 142 reviews
Profile Image for Anne Bogel.
Author 6 books89k followers
Read
March 16, 2026
Reviewed in the March 2026 edition of Quick Lit on Modern Mrs Darcy:

This was one of my most-anticipated spring titles: as hoped, it was the right book at the right time for me and I'm certain I won't be the only one. 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.)
Profile Image for Ashlee Gadd.
Author 7 books475 followers
April 16, 2026
If I could give this book six stars, I would. A perfect book for such a time as this.
Profile Image for Jessica Yoder.
1 review
March 24, 2026
You know that part in the Barbie movie when the Barbies are dancing to upbeat music and, mid-choreography, Barbie says, “Do you ever think about death?” That’s me—and reading Counterweights made me think I should reconsider my approach.

Shannan has the background to be a card-carrying, all-caps Evangelical Christian Republican, but she has allowed her life among her neighbors to stretch her table longer and wider, making room for a community that extends beyond church or politics.

She regularly draws our attention to the hard things happening around us, but she also balances the work of paying attention with the beauty, humor, and good food found in everyday life—her counterweights. When the headlines threaten the peace and safety of our neighbors, Shannan reminds us of the importance of carrying that weight: “We cannot counterweight what we avoid or minimize.” By naming what is heavy, we open ourselves to hope. The result of this “one foot in the grave and one foot in the garden” (I wrote this line down IMMEDIATELY) philosophy is a collection of essays—each chapter pairing something difficult with something that restores.

Shannan names griefs drawn from the headlines, her own faith story, and her work at a local soup kitchen, and then follows each one with a litany of things that bring her joy: thrift store finds, lemon curd, and the way the Right Reverend Taylor Swift can guide you through a church breakup.

This book is for the doom-scroller, the cynic, and the news-weary reader who needs a reminder that the peonies are pushing up through the dirt RIGHT NOW. It’s also for the sky-watcher, the beauty-collector, and the friend group that mixes dire news with funny memes in their text thread.

Profile Image for Becky Lynn.
113 reviews2 followers
April 14, 2026
Shannan’s writing will most likely always be a 5 🌟for me. Her lyrical prose and voice in this world is a true counterweight in my life. I’m almost 50, I grew up in the church and was a conservative Christian for much of my life. When your ideology changes and you stay in the church, things get a bit bumpy and you question yourself and everything around you for a while. When other voices speak your heart, it heals in ways that I cannot describe. This author does that for me. I always feel encouraged by Shannan’s honesty. She’s not trying to spin all of the ugliness into a pretty web. She lives in the mess AND finds the beauty - aka counterweights. I always close her books feeling more hopeful than when I started and best of all I anticipate what’s next in this complicated, beautiful, mess of a life. 💕
Profile Image for Jen Dowler.
13 reviews1 follower
May 30, 2026
A book to read slowly. Life is hard and the world is broken, but pause just a moment and you will see the good and beautiful, and it may just surprise you when it comes where you least expect it. It's in your everyday life, in the people you love, and the neighbor that will show you its vastness if you only pause long enough to see them.
Profile Image for Melissa.
1 review
April 28, 2026
I love Shannan’s authentic and gritty writing. She calls us to see both the beauty and the grief of our everyday lives and doesn’t minimize either part. She calls us to work for justice and love our neighbors right where we are. She calls us to find the daily counterweights to keep going in a way that is real and tangible.
Profile Image for Lynnae.
81 reviews4 followers
May 30, 2026
Wow, I loved this - walking through my own hard & also beautiful season this book came at the perfect time. Loved the writing, the format, & the invitation to document my own counterweights that help balance the heaviness of being a person in the world. Also, Shannan beautifully embodies the Beatitudes in her own life & I’m inspired by how she neighbors & forms kinship with those who have different lived experiences from her own. 5 ⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️

‘’The practice of gathering counterweights is about creating moments of sustenance from the raw materials of what we’re given. It is about holding everything in honest tension. Both/ and. Our counterweights help us move forward and breathe through the heaviness. At their best, they can’t be bought or sold. They aren’t a matter of luck or reserved for the privileged. They are widely accessible and casually weird, entirely personal and communal to their core. They are their own reward. And they are happening all the time, ready to steady us on our feet.’’
Profile Image for Jen Postma☕️.
315 reviews4 followers
April 10, 2026
3 1/2 🌟--52 Club BC prompt #41 A Guide to....

How to find the beauty and blessings amongst the hard things in life; counterweights....there's a bad thing, but how can we counterwieght that with a good thing?

I enjoyed most of the writing and ideas, but she loves metaphors, and after a while, I felt like I was wading through so many metaphors. It got a little more political than I like. It's her story, so whatever, but politics turns me off.

Overall, I like the premise of counterweights and her examples of looking for the them within your own neighborhood and community, God's creation, and even the mundane.
4 reviews
April 12, 2026
How I feel about Counterweights and the author Shannan Martin —the short version: she’s like that one friend from middle school who could tell when you were upset and always knew the right thing to say to make you feel better, even if she couldn’t take away the pain .

The long version—She puts into words what our* (*women of a certain age who teased their bangs at some point in their childhood for the yearbook picture) hearts are feeling but we just couldn’t find the right words to say.

And when you read her words, your heart lifts a little, and you start to feel hope.

Because finally, someone has validated the weight you have been carrying and guides you on a journey to balance that fear/despair/anger/dissociation with feelings of joy/hope/art/love.

This is THE book. The one you read and re-read because the words are what you need.

One of my favorite quotes from this book: “I needed a change of pace that would bring me home to myself.”
Profile Image for Kimberly Patton.
Author 4 books20 followers
May 19, 2026
She’s such a great writer. Such a great observer of life and reports it back to the home crowd with delicacy. I enjoy reading her writing. The idea of Counterweights is brilliant because we cannot ignore the hard but we also cannot forget the beauty. From beginning to end, she did a great job leading me back to that thread of weights and counterweights.

Page 16- “When wholeness is our goal, beauty is our emergency.”

22- her husband says no one should have to die to experience the kingdom of God

106- traveling is great and all, but big vacations can’t be our grand plan for maintaining equilibrium.

Profile Image for Rachel Hafler.
400 reviews
March 27, 2026
Shannan is a superb writer and this book speaks beautifully to our current cultural existential crisis. I love the format of this- short essays, interspersed with fun lists and 'extras'. The practice of naming the highs and lows, the happy and the crappy, the weight and the counterweight is nothing new, but Shannan mines the depths of its potential here. Holding the tension of pain and beauty together and seeing the deep goodness in our everyday, ordinary lives might just be what saves us. And Counterweights is a lovely guide for exactly that.
Profile Image for Charity.
157 reviews13 followers
June 11, 2026
A lovely collection of essays that exolore the idea of countering our weights. That it is easier to carry something heavy (literally) if we carry something equally heavy in the other hand. What if we made it a practice to counter the hard things in our life with the abundance that also exists. I appreciated that these essays didn't come across as 'just be grateful' or 'try harder' or as toxic spirituality.
6 reviews
June 9, 2026
A good reminder to stay engaged with what’s difficult & terrible around us while savoring the little things each day that bring joy & beauty (“counter weights”). The author writes poetically and shares real-life stories of interactions with & perspectives of people that many would consider as being the bottom of society. It leaves you reconsidering what really matters in life.
Profile Image for Laura.
241 reviews
June 2, 2026
8.5/10
-Story / Structure:+1
-Characters: +1
-Writing style:+1
-Pacing: +.5
-Ending:+1
-Accuracy:+1
-Emotional impact:+.5
-Overall enjoyment: +1
-Did The Author Impact My Viewpoint:+.5
-Would I Recommend / Reread:+1
Profile Image for Erica Short.
60 reviews2 followers
March 27, 2026
I’ll read anything Shannan Martin writes, but I’ve been anticipating this one. She is so thoughtful in teaching us how to hold the hard and the hopeful at the same time.
Profile Image for Sherrie.
10 reviews
April 20, 2026
There aren’t enough stars for this one. I read it as slowly as I could, & I still cried that it was over. It’s such a healing balm for the times we live in and a call to action for hope in your own corner of this weary world.
Profile Image for Margaret Neal.
84 reviews
May 18, 2026
Beautiful collection of hopeful (but not trite) essays! Can’t wait to return to this one. I borrowed it from the library, but just might have to purchase it.
Profile Image for Jen Johnson.
1,472 reviews3 followers
May 27, 2026
I thought this was Christian self-help, but was delighted to find it was a series of thoughtful essays.
Profile Image for Kara Mayfield.
373 reviews27 followers
June 14, 2026
This book of essays is SO GOOD!!! I read a few pages everyday & am so sad I just finished. This is my first book of Shannan’s to read, but it definitely won’t be my last! Her voice/words are ones I want in my ear regularly.
Profile Image for Carol Burris.
166 reviews3 followers
April 13, 2026
Much needed words, especially in these troubled times. Ways to counterbalance the hard things with noticing the good.
Profile Image for Rose .
111 reviews
May 19, 2026
I don't understand the hype around this one. It felt like a disjointed memoir rather than an inspirational book. Also the prose tries way too hard to be poetic, resulting in lots of awkward metaphors. Not for me.
Profile Image for Molly Grimmius.
868 reviews16 followers
April 10, 2026
Her writing style is just not for me. Her stories were all over but yet the same thing… terrible political awfulness, world is terrible, fire hose…. But here is the little things I can do. Could have been told in one good essay. Lots of valid church hurt but then felt like she went so far from the truth of who God is and is faithfulness in a world that is sinful… there was such a bitter, angry tone that I just couldn’t take it anymore. So did not finish. She is not an author for me.
Profile Image for Kathy.
130 reviews1 follower
June 8, 2026
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it is a great reminder to look for the little things in life, the beauty of the things that make us smile or feel safe or loved and use these things as a stabilizer in a world where we often feel too much evil and too much wrong. Well written and joy to read.
Profile Image for Lauren.
258 reviews2 followers
April 2, 2026
📖

p. 14 // Daily life proves to be a bit too much. It's too frantic, too full, too bruising for our tender hearts. It contains more beauty, more delight, more awe and more eccentricity than we can possibly hold, but we're willing to strain our arms and hearts trying.

How can we possibly endure the endless burn of bad news and hold the hefty, human weight of everyday goodness?

p. 58 !!

p. 69 dignity should not require a house number. Neither should a nap.... rest is not a luxury; it is mandatory. God affirms this. Bishop Tricia has a quote that says rest is a divine right. Rest is a human right.

p. 162 libertarian theologian Kelley Nikondehla writes "amid taboo gossip and misunderstandings, Mary stood. She had agreed to be seen as an unwed mother, to risk disgrace among her community in order to birth Hope. Surviving stigma, and struggle with her experience, and became part of the DNA of her son".

p. 166 she is our lady of the sick. Our mother of sorrow. She is a collision of history and imagination. Our view of Mary moves through the meaning we assigned to everyone. Black theologian Christena Cleveland writes that through amore accurate, expensive view of Mary, "we will begin to see that our idea of God determines who is sacred, and who is profane, whose life matters, and whose life does not, whose testimony is believable and whose is not, who is a fugitive and who is not, who is safe and who is not".

read the book The God Who Sees by Karen Gonzales

p. 174 everything is vapor. we only get to do this once.

p. 217 !!!

somewhere in the book, I think "hurt people can heal people"

p. 222 do we have the guts to follow nature's lead and bloom through lament?

Wonder-maker Ross Gay said, "To me, joy has nothing to do with ease. And joy has everything to do with the fact that we're all going to die".

Joy is only an act of resistance if we use it as fuel for justice. Danger blinks on the horizon, but I vote that we spend our days as living monuments, putting ourselves on the line for the sake of our neighbors, reimagining and remaking our world, topping off the bucket and loading the scales with dirt and worms, rainwater and sunscreen, and a juicy soundtrack for planting God's kingdom-right now—as it is in heaven.
Suffering gardens.
Solidarity gardens.

p. 223 i'll risk failure and cram my timeline with curiosity.

Psalm 27:13
324 reviews9 followers
June 24, 2026
Naming our pain is our prescription for healing. Embodying it is even better. (p.33)

When a church is unsafe for anyone, it is unsafe for everyone. (p.46)

Abundance is ours for the taking, but we can't experience it until we open our eyes to complexity. ... Heaviness is part of the human equation. (p.56)

Shahnaz Habib shares, "People from the Third World do not travel; they immigrate." (p.99)

Who will you be when most of the daily caretaking is over? How will you fill your time? (p.106)

I feel it when my angst is held in care, when those around me move toward my anguish rather than away from it, when I get the distinct impression that my humanity is not too much for them. (p.120)

When we succumb to empire's lie that poverty is a symptom of personal deficiency rather than unjust policy, or we settle for feeling sympathy rather than admiration for those who keep us fed, we starve ourselves from belonging. (p.134)

Bundled in nerve endings and blanketed with receptors, our bodies aren't asking us to evaluate or narrate our lives but to experience them. (p.144)

But the part I can't shake is that we are always being invited into a better story. Every day we're confronted with the choice to either mind our business, heads down, or pay attention and try to move toward each other.
We screw up and apologize. We slow down and lend a hand. We receive the help we need. The way we treat those in our peripheral vision matters. Because at the end of the day, they aren't random strangers. They're our neighbors, meant to shape us from the inside out. (p. 157)

Home is not just where we live; it is where we belong. (p.201)

If we hope to live a good life of contentment, we have to exit the trap of comparing ourselves only to those who have more than we do and learn from those who have less. (p.205)

The work, wherever we are, is to witness God's goodness in our midst. (p.228)
Profile Image for Michelle Rayburn.
Author 17 books12 followers
March 25, 2026
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.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 142 reviews