Hold tight to your golden thread
How to stay oriented in the Substack wilderness
Hi friends,
What is your golden thread? How will it help to steady you, as you navigate writing your Substack and living your life?
This piece started as a throw-away comment. I saw a Note by Russell, in which they shared a piece by Jane Friedman.
In it, they highlighted some of the things about writing on Substack which can be tiring - including a constant vigilance around how many subscribers we have, and a false equating of ever-increasing paid subscribers with our ‘moral worth’. One of the things they said in the Note which I like very much is:
“I have always said that money is the byproduct of running a good business, not the reason for it.”
When I shared Russell’s Note, I added my own thoughts:
“It can be easy to fall into chasing subscribers and money here, rather than seeing them as a by-product of writing the words that are yearning to come through you.
Follow the golden thread. My golden thread is wanting to pass on the good stuff I've received from others - the stuff that has helped me to be kinder to myself. The rest will take care of itself.
What's your golden thread?”
Russell was interested in what I meant by a golden thread [ed. note - what I said was “Ooooh, do you have more things about this golden thread in your archives, because I looove that.”]. Their question gave me pause.
What did I actually mean?
Was I describing my own golden thread accurately?
How does my thread actually help me to keep my footing here, in amongst the hullabaloo of self-promotion and competition and compulsion?
My image of a golden thread has emerged from at least two texts. The first is a Buddhist poem in our tradition about a ‘golden chain’, which joins everyone together. The first line is:
I am a link in the Buddha’s golden chain of love that stretches around the world
The second is a poem by William Stafford, below, which encourages us to hold onto the thread that runs throughout our lives:
The Way It Is
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among things that change. But it doesn’t change. People wonder about what you are pursuing. You have to explain about the thread. But it is hard for others to see. While you hold it you can’t get lost. Tragedies happen; people get hurt or die; and you suffer and get old. Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding. You don’t ever let go of the thread.
I love the ineffable quality of Stafford’s thread. What is he getting at in this poem, though? He is pointing towards something that keeps us steady in spite of the world’s turbulence. For me, the poem points towards a few qualities of this thing-that-keeps-us-safe:
🧵 Everyone’s thread is different, and our definition of our own thread is a deeply personal affair.
🧵 No-one else can tell us what our thread is, and we have to discover our own thread or threads ourselves - maybe after years or even decades of searching.
🧵 Our thread doesn’t stop bad things from happening to us and to others (old age, sickness, death) but it does offer us something - maybe firm ground under our feet, maybe a charm against becoming overwhelmed or being floored by despair.
🧵 There is poetry to our thread. It has a beauty to it, which is impervious to impermanence in the way that everything else is. The thread endures.
In my Note, I thought about my golden thread in relation to my writing at Substack. I realized that what keeps me steady isn’t what I hope to receive, but what I want to offer. My particular offering has clarified over my year of writing here. Some recent work with
helped me to see that I write because I want to be kinder to myself, and because I want others to receive that gift, too.When I get caught in needing affirmation or in doubting the quality of my work, I try to return to my golden thread: focus on making your offering as beautiful as you can, and everything else will take care of itself.
When I think about my whole-of-life thread, it has similar tones and colors. In order to make the best offerings I can, I need to look after myself.
I need to set appropriate boundaries. I need to understand what my unique offering is (more about this in my piece next month). I need to be realistic about what is possible, as one fallible human amongst nearly 8 billion other humans. I need to keep an open mind when it comes to guessing at what use my offerings might be.
These are the core beliefs or hypotheses that I have developed over the past five decades, and they keep me steady. This golden thread is woven into the other threads in my life - the thread of nature, the thread of my Buddhist faith, the threads of my spouse, friends and dogs, the thread of words.
I still fall down. I still sometimes touch into deep depression, and sometimes I feel that everything is pointless. I have moments of being utterly lost. Usually, though, the threads are right there already crossing my palm. I don’t even need to pick them up, I just need to remember to look for them again.
I would love to hear about your golden threads.
What helps you?
What’s still difficult?
What questions do you have?
What keeps you oriented here at Substack? What helps you to remember your golden thread?
What helps keep you oriented in life?
Russell said that, for them, money is a by-product of running a good business. I think that threads work like that - there are all kinds of happy by-products, but we don’t need them to feel worthy, and we don’t need them to carry on.
We carry on because we are following our thread, and there is an intrinsic value in that activity. We know that we are following it, even when those around us think we’re crazy. We are mesmerized by its glitter. The thread allows us to see everything in a different light.
Nothing we can do can stop time from unfolding and we will always have our thread. Isn’t it beautiful?
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Satya, Thank you for this visual (and Russell for asking more questions and sharing with the rest of us!)
I think you have put words to something I’ve been trying to define for a long time. I’ve often felt like there is something pulling me forward through life - something that holds me attentive, listening deeply for elements that “resonate” with something internally. It’s so hard to describe what I mean in words, but this visual of a ‘golden thread’ feels relevant.
The best way I can give an example, is this:
For all my life I’ve intuitively felt that the environments in which we live (and experience) dramatically influence our identity, wellbeing, and ability to actualize our inherent potential. Yet - knowing this doesn’t mean one can just create the ideal environment they need to thrive. Nor does it mean we know how to create that environment for our children, (or community) either. And oftentimes, we can’t control the environments we experience.
Thus, my quest (or golden thread) has always been about this element of creating an environment that can help one thrive, especially as it relates to our concept of home and self (because our interior world is an environment, too). And because of this - I often hear, read, and notice more words/ideas and information floating in the world around me on this topic more acutely than others.
Then, I take this information, form insights and queries, and explore it more deeply in my writing.
This particular golden thread is the thickest of my threads, I’d say. And the other areas of interest tend to weave themselves around that thread, forming a braid. In other words, it informs how I proceed with all of my other creative ideas and intentions, business related or otherwise.
It’s a great concept to keep this in mind going forward on this Substack journey!!! Thank you again for this post! ✨💕🙏
Love your work here Satya. And it marries beautifully with that quote from Russell about money being a byproduct of a good business.
My golden thread is trusting that what feels pertinent and potent in my life is what I MUST write about - that there’s a golden thread tying my experience in the world with that of others, and trusting that at least one person will find solace in my writing.
Thank you for asking this question, it’s something I knew in my heart, but this has been a beautiful opportunity to articulate it.