2021/149: Wintering: The power of rest and retreat in difficult times -- Katherine May

Some winters are gradual. Some winters creep up on us so slowly that they have infiltrated every part of our lives before we truly feel them. [loc. 1480]

Katherine May's book on surviving winters meteorological and spiritual feels especially apposite in this second winter of the pandemic. Her definition of wintering as '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' rang true for me: in a way, much of this year been a wintering for me, and I appreciated May's exploration of self-care, of regarding the darkness as an opportunity for rest and recuperation, a time to reach out rather than hunker down, a time for craft (which is not the same as creativity) and for realigning with the rhythms of the natural world.

I did find some parts of the book -- May's journeys north in search of the aurora, her trip to Iceland, her solstice at Stonehenge, her cold-sea swimming -- less interesting than others. May is an excellent writer, lucid and lyrical, but I did not empathise with the tightness of her diamond shoes. Her acceptance and endurance of the gloom, waiting for winter to pass and spring to come, was what I found most helpful: I'm trying to reshape this winter, with its attendant melancholia, as a fallow period from which I'll emerge revitalised.

Lots of fascinating material here: the first and second sleeps of 'natural' winter nights before electricity, the winter customs of northern countries, the wildlife of the English countryside, the weird beauty of snowfall. I am reminded to recognise the year's rhythms: we've turned the year, the days are getting longer. That, despite electric light and warm houses, we are still affected by the natural cycles of the world.

Wintering was the BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, December 5-9 2021: excerpts read by Melody Grove.

PS: I've just noticed that this book has two different subtitles: 'How I Learned to Flourish When Life Became Frozen' and 'The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times'. I'm not sure which came first, or why the change, but I think the former makes it seem more of a memoir, while the latter is angled towards self-help.