Wintering - GlaucaWyrm

256 pages

English language

Published Dec. 3, 2020 by Penguin Publishing Group.

ISBN:: 9780593189481

(2 reviews)

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 …

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.

6 editions

matthewmincher@bookwyrm.social reviewed Wintering by Katherine May

Look to Spring

4 stars

A well written book that I enjoyed. A focus on life being a series of tidal ebbs and flows, waxes and wanes rather than a linear GETTING BETTER or GETTING WORSE.

I had the same kind of issue I have with Matt Haig’s books where the answers and “solutions” just don’t translate well, or I can’t empathise with the situation.

Some of the book centres around mindfulness and the power of acknowledging and addressing the moment and your needs.

I don’t really agree with some of the criticism the author is getting - all situations are relative and as much as I can’t empathise with the situations here, that doesn’t devalue them. It felt to me as if the book was intentionally internal and inward looking, rather than it being a statement on her character.

Llaverac reviewed Wintering by Katherine May

We have seasons when we flourish, and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again.

3 stars

Calling low points in life "wintering" definitely attracted me to this book. I like the cyclical aspect of the metaphor, its opposition with the notion of an eternal summer that we should aspire to even though it's impossible, but after reading this book, I have mixed feelings about it.

On one hand, I highlighted several passages, on the other hand most of the time the author's sensitivity or comparisons did nothing for me. I felt like the book remained a collection of loosely connected autobiographical passages, comparisons with animals like dormice, robins or wolves, and a few interviews of people who went through their own winters. But it never became more than the sum of its parts.