My best friend bought me this book, I read it immediately and found wonderful resonance with my own world these last nine months. As she said to me it is a good read for the time of year, and time of life. This has proved so very true and I have taken great comfort in this truly lovely read. This small thoughtful gift has brought me such quiet joy and a feeling of ease from the familiarity of reading in words some things which I have not been able to easily articulate to myself in thought.`
The book is a very personal account of ‘the power of rest and retreat in difficult times’, the ‘winters’ of life and of life’s natural cycle. May writes about her own year of winter and explores winter pursuits and ways of life. All demonstrate an acceptance of living differently, of patience and survival, an alignment to nature and why winter is glorious in its own right. Cold water swimming, holidaying north, the concept of hygge, festivities and marking the turn of the year at winter solstice each provides a place and an opportunity to reflect as to what winter and embracing winter means.
Interestingly while the book talks about slowing down, saying no, and letting your spare time expand it simultaneously encourages one to lean in and truly embrace winter. It is this calm and loving approach to a gentler pace, where energy is not halted altogether but slowed and made more purposeful that I found consolation. Rather than fighting against winter and wishing it was not so, continuing to painfully push forward in order to maintain a constant summer of success, achievements and applaudable growth, I felt kindred understanding that it was ok to slow, that my turn would come again just not right now, and even if my world may not be as it was once before it will re-emerge anew when it is time.
During this year I have been told many times to be kind to myself, and have not always understood what was meant by this, and this book has helped me to think about what that means for me. I would suggest your favourite seat, a cosy blanket, a warm drink, maybe a sweet treat and some quite solitude to read and enjoy this lovely meditative book.
Quotes:
“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 that they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through. Winter is a time of withdrawing from the world, maximising scant resources, carrying out acts of brutal efficiency and vanishing from sight; but that’s where the transformation occurs. Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible.”
“When it’s really cold, the snow makes a lovely noise underfoot, and it’s like the air is full of stars.”
“We are in the habit of imagining our lives to be linear, a long march from birth to death in which we mass our powers, only to surrender them again, all the while slowly losing our youthful beauty. This is a brutal untruth. Life meanders like a path through the woods. We have seasons when we flourish and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again.”