Wintering

Wintering Katherine May

I know I was far from being the only one finding it really hard to press pause, and not just pause but to slow down. It always had to be fast, sunny, summer, busy, hectic, and exciting. If not? Might as well not live. Until the Covid Crisis, until I rediscovered the joy of getting bored, the joy of being excited by the idea of even just being able to go for a sunrise or sunset walk as the only plan of the day. It's all about relearning how to go slowly. But even more than that, it's about learning how to live.

This is what this book is to me. I love how this is related through the soft and tender voice of our wonderful narrator instead of the prescriptive voice emanating from usual personal development books that make you feel bad about yourself when the expectation was the exact opposite. I emerged from this reading as a different person.

Since I have read this essay, I have slowly started to notice shifts happening in my perceptions of the world around me. I am not seeking the heat and summer all year - this would now be an actual nightmare when only a few years back it had been my absolute dream. I am craving rainy days and shorter days sometimes. I acknowledge the power of all of this. When I am exhausted, depleted, I know all I need is a good winter day. The old-fashioned way, a day to stop and reflect, to eat and sit.

This little note is a huge thank you to Katherine May for allowing me to finally see the beauty of winter and create a winter day for myself in the middle summer if I need. A book I have read multiple times again especially at the end of summer, when I still feel so much grief and ache in my heart at letting those long warm days go away to welcome the crisp mornings, this book is helping year after year to go past the resistance of the first few days. Exactly as if it was there holding my hand, showing me the way to the path of slowing down and loving the process.