Wintering: The Power of Rest in Difficult Times

Wintering is a comforting meditation on the periods of life, when we must retreat to care for and repair ourselves. The author thoughtfully shows how to come through these times with the wisdom of knowing that, like the seasons, our winters and summers are the ebb and flow of life.

A moving personal narrative on the transformative power of rest and retreat, illumination emerges from many sources, not least the hibernation of creatures like sleepy dormice.

Plants and animals don’t fight the winter. They don’t pretend it’s not happening, and attempt to carry on living the same lives they had lived in the summer. Winter is a time of withdrawing from the world, and vanishing from sight.

But that’s where the transformation occurs. Its’ a time for reflection and recuperation, and for putting your house in order. Slowing down, getting enough sleep, resting.

This is an invite to accept sadness, and find nourishment in deep retreat, and joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and an understanding of life as cyclical.

May thoughtfully examines the emotional, spiritual, and geographical reality of the cold times, the dark days, and those periods of our lives when things are neither soft nor easy. In so doing, she offers a great and humane service to her readers: she shows us that wintering cannot be avoided, but need not be feared.  Elizabeth Gilbert

About the Author

Katherine May is a renowned writer and speaker, whose work touches on nature, slow living and spiritualty. She is author of the popular Substack newsletter The Clearing. She lives by the sea in Kent, and loves walking, sea-swimming and cooking feasts.