Reinventurer's Book Review: Wintering

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

Katherine May

Tags: Winter Transition, Wintering, Loss, Inertia, Acceptance

Book Cover Summary: 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.

Reinventurer's Review

“Wintering” is part memoir, part travel log, some geography, biology, and history lessons, with spiritual meanderings added to the mix. This is the perfect book to explain the confusion step in the transitional re-invent-uring process. (See our Blog: "The Path of the Re-invent-urer" for more information on the four seasons of transitioning.)

Study Guide (Questions to ponder and discuss; additional resources to investigate)

September (prologue)

How do you feel about the coming of Winter each year?

How does our culture play into the idea that life should be “one eternal Summer?

What do you naturally do different in Winter than during the other seasons?

How do you navigate the cultural and family “taboos” in your life?

October (section 1)

What “quiet pleasures” do you experience in the Winter when you have “retreated from your life”?

Why do you think some of us, unlike the Danish, feel guilty experiencing hygge?

Do you experience seasonal depression and, if so, how do you cope with it?

Quarantine was a long Winter—how did you fill your days and what, if any, have been the lasting effects of that unnatural and forced Winter?

Supporting Resources

The Year of Hygge, The Danish Obsession with Getting Cozy https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-year-of-hygge-the-danish-obsession-with-getting-cozy

8 Mood-Boosting Tips to Help Soothe Seasonal Affective Disorder https://www.prevention.com/life/g20492338/prevent-winter-blues/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=arb_ga_pre_md_pmx_us_urlx&gclid=CjwKCAiAjs2bBhACEiwALTBWZdAl6vHoGd_gQnsL1fW0MBRT_U2sgpJWJZMc6IRtgiugAwz13glccBoCD-oQAvD_BwE

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20364651

November (section 2)

As you are in the Winter experience of abscission (the natural detachment of parts of a plant, typically dead leaves and ripe fruit) what new buds are beginning to sprout in you?

What changes do you experience in yourself after a good night’s sleep or peaceful rest?

December (section 3)

How are you “a lit candle”?

How do you feel and act when you experience “A lift of obligation to endlessly do”?

Are there rituals you practice for the rhythm of the year?

How does our culture promote or prohibit “the active acceptance of sadness”?

Supporting Resources

No More Grind: How to Finally Rest with Tricia Hersey (Podcast) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/no-more-grind-how-to-finally-rest-with-tricia-hersey/id1564530722?i=1000582486920

Cailleach https://mythopedia.com/topics/cailleach

“Prayer” by Carol Ann Duffy The Poetry Exchange podcast https://www.thepoetryexchange.co.uk/prayer-carol-ann-duffy

Skating to Antarctica (excerpt) https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/d/diski-skating.html