Title: Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

Author: Katherine May

Publisher: Riverhead Books 2020

Genre: Nonfiction

Pages: 255

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Seasonal TBR

Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a break up, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered.

A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May's story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat. Illumination emerges from many sources: solstice celebrations and dormice hibernation, C.S. Lewis and Sylvia Plath, swimming in icy waters and sailing arctic seas.

Ultimately Wintering invites us to change how we relate to our own fallow times. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear. A secular mystic, May forms a guiding philosophy for transforming the hardships that arise before the ushering in of a new season.

I am a bit speechless about this book. I expected to zip through it and write it off as another memoir/self-help style book that I did not enjoy. Instead, I read the introduction and was absolutely floored by how much I was connecting with the author’s philosophy of life. But I also didn’t want to speed through it. I ended a chapter every few days to allow myself to really sit with the messages. At about the fourth chapter or so, I declared that I needed to own this book. As a 39 year old woman, I feel like I’m hitting of lot of the rough patches in life that May dealt with. I can definitely place myself in her shoes and contemplate how to move forward. I’m definitely experiencing a wintering season in my own life. The book may have been written pre-pandemic, but it’s exactly right for right now. The copy I read is from the library’s and will be returned this week. But I will be ordering my own copy and soon. I want to read the sections along with the calendar. As the book really starts in September, I have a few weeks to acquire my own copy. This is a contender for my Top 10 books of the year.

Next up on the TBR pile: