I really like the ledger idea, write down something that is a positive. It is so easy to get snowed under with the negative. I have been actively involved for the last six years in letter/postcard campaigns, as well as voter outreach/education it was a way for me to feel like I was doing something positive. Reaching out to friends and neighbors, community members to make sure that they are registered to vote. Do they know when their mail in ballots should arrive? Do they need help with getting registered or dropping off their ballots. All these small steps can lead to great outcomes. Thanks Jack!
Wow...Kristine. YES...and what you've been doing comes with that multi-sensory feedback: a look, a sentence, the touch on your hand...or witnessing a long-overdue sigh...and a prolonged exhale...is someone you're talking to. That's a truly special kind of reward.
Hooray for HOPE and the LEDGER! Thank you, Jack! It makes me smile and breathe deeply as multiple examples roll to mind in a hurry, thanks to your examples!!! The numbers considered within groups on the itemized, immediate mental image of the ledger increase the hope by numerous degrees! Now, to grab the pen and make the physical list for a prominent place!
Judy...you're welcome. This one...I must say... It's a truly profound exercise...and it had a brain-reorganization kind of impact on me when I first started this around 2008. Hope you enjoy it just as much!
If people are feeling beaten down and having a hard time starting their ledger….. there are some substackers that do exactly that. Jess Craven’s Chop Wood, Carry Water does one at the end of the week as does Aaron Parnas. Lately it seems there has been quite a bit of good news!! The momentum feels pretty doggone good. 👍
You are welcome, Jack! It’s the least I can do. I’m pasting a link to the one from Jess dated 9/13 and…… these are available via a free sub…. Jess is a cheerleader for democracy and very positive! She includes obscure stuff that we’d really have to dig hard to find…
Thank you for helping keep all of us right side up and between the rails…! (an old saying for those who drive in snowy, slippery conditions)
Nothing could be more true. I remind myself every time I throw away something that’s clearly clutter, give something to a friend or neighbor that fills a need or brings them joy, or even just get up and arrange things within my view in a more pleasing manner or put something away. The lightness these small actions bring reminds me that it is well within my power to make changes, however small, that matter. Maybe those bigger ones are really not all that big, and not beyond my reach if I just stretch a little.
Ledger starting. Thanks for reminding us of the power we all have to look forward and HOPE - the verb.
You are most welcome, my friend. On a difficult day if I can do one thing this simple - wash my coffee cup and put it away when I’m finished - can lift my spirits just enough to do another little thing. Hope grows. Thanks for your encouragement. Always appreciate your grounded and solid approach.
I want to tell you something, and I mean every word of it: this is the actual mechanism. Not the idea of it — the mechanism. I didn't get to a place where I can read something like this and recognize it instantly by accident. It took years of doing the work myself, slowly, the long way, building the skills one at a time until they became load-bearing. The ledger you just described in three moves is the exact architecture I had to construct piece by piece over a long time. You just handed people the blueprint in under a thousand words. That's not a small thing. That's years compressed into a Wednesday.
The part that hit hardest was "hope runs on the same wiring as courage." I used to wait to feel ready, feel hopeful, feel anything, before I'd move. Nothing changed until I flipped the order — moved first, let the feeling show up as a receipt for the action instead of a precondition for it. Once you've lived that reversal, you can't unsee it. You start recognizing everywhere else in your life where you were waiting for permission from a feeling that was never going to arrive first.
Here's the one thing I'd add, because I think you're one line away from it: the ledger gets exponentially stronger the moment it stops being private. Writing the evidence down is the discipline. But saying it out loud to one other person — texting a friend the small win, posting the ledger entry instead of just the despair — does something the private version can't. It turns your evidence into someone else's evidence too. Hope is contagious in a way despair pretends not to be, but only if it leaves the notebook. You told people to write it down. I'd tell them to also hand it to somebody.
I love the Ledger idea. It’ll be pen and a notebook for me. I have some tucked away and I’ll go get one out tonight. I need this.
Every time I read about something hopeful happening and then read the comments… “It doesn’t matter, nothing will be done about it. It never is.” “We’ll never get justice”…or lately that “we’re all going to die” thing. Ugh! Well, yeah, we are but it doesn’t necessarily have to be all of us all at once. Maybe it’ll happen but I’m not going to dwell on it. It won’t help anyone.
That one small thing for me is usually something around the house. Something simple. Clean something I’ve been putting off or just put some things away. It helps.. no matter how small the act.
Another great ‘Bedrock’ article that I can really use. Thank you, Jack.
I’ll send it to a friend in Nashville. He’s lost a lot of friends and family over this even though he tried so hard not to let it happen.
I think about Pete Seeger back in the 1960s, who decided that the Hudson River in New York State needed a hand. At the time, the river was an open sewer. Pete got the idea that they should build a boat to take school children out on the river to show them there was life in there, and talk about how to help the river. With the help of his wife Toshi’s organizational and fundraising skills and the support of a whole bunch of folks, the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater was born. Pete didn’t know whether the educational mission of the Clearwater would clean up the river in his lifetime, but he knew that it wasn’t going to clear itself unless someone took the first step. He was a very patient organizer! And by the time of Pete’s death in 2014, the river was clean enough to swim in, thanks to the efforts of people encouraged by the lessons taught on board Clearwater. We can’t necessarily solve today’s problems by building a boat, but we can start down the road to solving them by taking a step forward. And maybe we don’t solve them in our lifetimes, but if we can build momentum that our children and our children’s children can build on, we will have made a difference.
I really like the ledger idea, write down something that is a positive. It is so easy to get snowed under with the negative. I have been actively involved for the last six years in letter/postcard campaigns, as well as voter outreach/education it was a way for me to feel like I was doing something positive. Reaching out to friends and neighbors, community members to make sure that they are registered to vote. Do they know when their mail in ballots should arrive? Do they need help with getting registered or dropping off their ballots. All these small steps can lead to great outcomes. Thanks Jack!
Wow...Kristine. YES...and what you've been doing comes with that multi-sensory feedback: a look, a sentence, the touch on your hand...or witnessing a long-overdue sigh...and a prolonged exhale...is someone you're talking to. That's a truly special kind of reward.
Keep trucking, Kristine!
-Jack
Hooray for HOPE and the LEDGER! Thank you, Jack! It makes me smile and breathe deeply as multiple examples roll to mind in a hurry, thanks to your examples!!! The numbers considered within groups on the itemized, immediate mental image of the ledger increase the hope by numerous degrees! Now, to grab the pen and make the physical list for a prominent place!
#HOLDFAST!
Judy...you're welcome. This one...I must say... It's a truly profound exercise...and it had a brain-reorganization kind of impact on me when I first started this around 2008. Hope you enjoy it just as much!
#HOLDFAST
-Jack
If people are feeling beaten down and having a hard time starting their ledger….. there are some substackers that do exactly that. Jess Craven’s Chop Wood, Carry Water does one at the end of the week as does Aaron Parnas. Lately it seems there has been quite a bit of good news!! The momentum feels pretty doggone good. 👍
Outstanding, Deb! Thank you for sharing those with this community.
And...YES...the momentum DOES feel good. VERY good!
-Jack
You are welcome, Jack! It’s the least I can do. I’m pasting a link to the one from Jess dated 9/13 and…… these are available via a free sub…. Jess is a cheerleader for democracy and very positive! She includes obscure stuff that we’d really have to dig hard to find…
Thank you for helping keep all of us right side up and between the rails…! (an old saying for those who drive in snowy, slippery conditions)
https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com/p/extra-extra-913?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=1otfky&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Nothing could be more true. I remind myself every time I throw away something that’s clearly clutter, give something to a friend or neighbor that fills a need or brings them joy, or even just get up and arrange things within my view in a more pleasing manner or put something away. The lightness these small actions bring reminds me that it is well within my power to make changes, however small, that matter. Maybe those bigger ones are really not all that big, and not beyond my reach if I just stretch a little.
Ledger starting. Thanks for reminding us of the power we all have to look forward and HOPE - the verb.
#HoldFast
Rae...you wrote "... or even just get up and arrange things within my view in a more pleasing manner or put something away." ISN'T. THAT. THE. TRUTH.
That ONE simple thing you described...may be one of the most profound decisions one can take.
Thank you, Rae!!
#HoldFast
-Jack
You are most welcome, my friend. On a difficult day if I can do one thing this simple - wash my coffee cup and put it away when I’m finished - can lift my spirits just enough to do another little thing. Hope grows. Thanks for your encouragement. Always appreciate your grounded and solid approach.
Rest well ~Rae
Jack,
I want to tell you something, and I mean every word of it: this is the actual mechanism. Not the idea of it — the mechanism. I didn't get to a place where I can read something like this and recognize it instantly by accident. It took years of doing the work myself, slowly, the long way, building the skills one at a time until they became load-bearing. The ledger you just described in three moves is the exact architecture I had to construct piece by piece over a long time. You just handed people the blueprint in under a thousand words. That's not a small thing. That's years compressed into a Wednesday.
The part that hit hardest was "hope runs on the same wiring as courage." I used to wait to feel ready, feel hopeful, feel anything, before I'd move. Nothing changed until I flipped the order — moved first, let the feeling show up as a receipt for the action instead of a precondition for it. Once you've lived that reversal, you can't unsee it. You start recognizing everywhere else in your life where you were waiting for permission from a feeling that was never going to arrive first.
Here's the one thing I'd add, because I think you're one line away from it: the ledger gets exponentially stronger the moment it stops being private. Writing the evidence down is the discipline. But saying it out loud to one other person — texting a friend the small win, posting the ledger entry instead of just the despair — does something the private version can't. It turns your evidence into someone else's evidence too. Hope is contagious in a way despair pretends not to be, but only if it leaves the notebook. You told people to write it down. I'd tell them to also hand it to somebody.
Thank you for this. Genuinely.
#HOLDFAST
I love the Ledger idea. It’ll be pen and a notebook for me. I have some tucked away and I’ll go get one out tonight. I need this.
Every time I read about something hopeful happening and then read the comments… “It doesn’t matter, nothing will be done about it. It never is.” “We’ll never get justice”…or lately that “we’re all going to die” thing. Ugh! Well, yeah, we are but it doesn’t necessarily have to be all of us all at once. Maybe it’ll happen but I’m not going to dwell on it. It won’t help anyone.
That one small thing for me is usually something around the house. Something simple. Clean something I’ve been putting off or just put some things away. It helps.. no matter how small the act.
Another great ‘Bedrock’ article that I can really use. Thank you, Jack.
I’ll send it to a friend in Nashville. He’s lost a lot of friends and family over this even though he tried so hard not to let it happen.
Restacking as usual too.
#Holdfast
~Susan
I think about Pete Seeger back in the 1960s, who decided that the Hudson River in New York State needed a hand. At the time, the river was an open sewer. Pete got the idea that they should build a boat to take school children out on the river to show them there was life in there, and talk about how to help the river. With the help of his wife Toshi’s organizational and fundraising skills and the support of a whole bunch of folks, the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater was born. Pete didn’t know whether the educational mission of the Clearwater would clean up the river in his lifetime, but he knew that it wasn’t going to clear itself unless someone took the first step. He was a very patient organizer! And by the time of Pete’s death in 2014, the river was clean enough to swim in, thanks to the efforts of people encouraged by the lessons taught on board Clearwater. We can’t necessarily solve today’s problems by building a boat, but we can start down the road to solving them by taking a step forward. And maybe we don’t solve them in our lifetimes, but if we can build momentum that our children and our children’s children can build on, we will have made a difference.