"Wintering" by Katherine May

"Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times" by Katherine May has been on my bookshelf for a while now. I finally cracked it open a few days ago, at the beginning of February, my least favourite month, and the beginning of a particularly brutal cold snap, following endless weeks of dark, gloomy grey skies.  

It's not a long book (my hardcover copy is 242 pages), but there's a lot to absorb and think about here. Its publication in February 2020 coincided with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it's not hard to see why it became a bestseller at this particular time in history:  May's personal story of living through a difficult period in her life is intertwined with her gentle observations and meditations on winter (the season) and "wintering" -- which she describes as: 

...a season in the cold. It is a fallow period in life when you’re cut off from the world, feeling rejected, sidelined, blocked from progress, or cast into the role of an outsider. Perhaps it results from an illness or a life event such as a bereavement or the birth of a child; perhaps it comes from a humiliation or failure. Perhaps you’re in a period of transition and have temporarily fallen between two worlds. Some wintering creep upon us more slowly, accompanying the protracted death of a relationship, the gradual ratcheting up of caring responsibilities as our parents age, the drip-drip-drip of lost confidence. Some are appallingly sudden, like discovering one day that your skills are considered obsolete, the company you worked for has gone bankrupt, or your partner is in love with someone new. However, it arrives, wintering is usually involuntary, lonely, and deeply painful.

Among other things, May writes about basking in mineral pools and saunas in Iceland, attending a St. Lucia service at a Swedish church, spending the winter solstice at Stonehenge, watching the aurora borealis (northern lights) in Norway, taking a New Year's Day plunge in the sea, and sending her son outside to play in the snow after a rare snowfall (she says she's never experienced a white Christmas -- !!! -- come to Manitoba, Katherine!! -- I can only recall two Christmases there where there WASN'T any snow cover, or at least not much!). 

This is a wise and beautifully written book, and reading it, during one of the coldest and gloomiest times of the year -- both weather-wise and heart-wise (and this year especially) -- was a balm for the soul (MY soul, anyway!). I don't often re-read books these days, but I can see myself reading this one again in the future. It's divided into sections, one for each month from September through March, and it would be interesting and easy to read one section per month, at the proper times.  :)  

I'm also looking forward to reading May's next book, which is coming out at the end of this month: "Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age." 

ALI note/content warning: The section on January begins with the story of May's infertility diagnosis, followed by a surprise pregnancy -- just before she was to start IVF treatment (of course!).  She also mentions her son at different points in the book. 

5 stars on Goodreads. 

This was Book #7 read to date in 2023 (and Book #1 finished in February), bringing me to 16% (!) of my 2023 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 3 books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2023 tagged as "2023 books."