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– do it!

What you refer to as Right Livelihood, I’ve called a “heart-singing job.” I have one (for the last four years).

I’ve had really horrible times in my life when I’ve worried about money almost constantly and not had quite enough. Other times I’ve just gone ahead and done the thing I felt was important and the money has appeared. Now I have less (money) than I’ve ever had, and yet I’ve plenty to do everything I want. It is fantastic There are periods even now when I get gripped by the worries–and it does paralyze me for a few days. When this happens, I’ve learned (although it is very hard to do when the paralysis occurs) to do something positive.

Make some positive action–write a letter to someone send out some mailing pieces, do some volunteer work. And invariably something good happens–hardly ever as a direct result or response to the positive action. An old written-off customer pays his bill, or a new cash order comes in from a brand new source, or someone asks us out to dinner. It hasn’t failed yet. The hard part is taking the positive step when you feel awful.

About us: Robert and I started a small press in the summer of 1971 with $300 in the bank for our summer living money. We just decided to go ahead and do it because it seemed right. I believe it was because we are still going and 93% of the time I look forward to getting started in the morning. We started with a little booklet on spinning (which has now sold over 18,000 copies) and we’ve gone on to put out other people’s works on yarns and fibers that were considered “too limited” by the large publishers. We now have eight titles and last year we were able to quit our moonlight jobs.

P.S. It just happened again. I’ve been typing this letter, and when I typed the part about things always working out, I thought to myself, “Yes they do, but what about today? The rent is due and we don’t have enough to cover it.” A friend just called (she has a small magazine that we typeset on our IBM composer) and she said she was coming over and bringing her money this evening. It really does work