Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

By Katherine May. Random House, 2020.

Often, if I have a friend who is struggling, to whom life has dealt a series of rough blows, this is the book that I will give them. It's gotten to the point where I'm contemplating having a set of these books so I always have one available to lend out if needed. That's how much I believe in the ideas and messages explored in this thoughtful book.

Katherine May explores how to listen to the body and give it what it needs in periods of upheaval or stress. She believes we all face personal winters in our lives, times of hardship, and that we can apply the wisdom of how different cultures approach winter to how to treat ourselves gently and kindly during these times, until spring returns to our lives. Sometimes the first, and most important, step is recognizing a "wintering" when it descends.

Key to this book is the idea of embodied wisdom, the idea that our bodies can tell us what we need if only we can listen to them. Sometimes the wisdom our bodies want to share with us can get lost, buried in messages from the world or other people about what we "should" be doing. Some of the other books I've recommended so far are great for deconstructing the "shoulds" from the outside world, and this book is a thoughtful guide for how to reconnect to those messages that are there, if only we choose to hear them.

For more about Katherine May and her books, click here. May also has a podcast; early episodes explore the ideas in Wintering, and later episodes explore the themes from her most recent book Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age, which I will be reviewing in another post soon (though, spoiler alert, I highly recommend it!)