Wintering

That celebrates both the flame and the darkness. Familiar, yet deeply and daringly affirming. Thankful for encountering it in a time like this.

I’m glad i read this book. It was quiet and beautiful and helped me see some failures in my life with a bit less despair and a bit more hope.

It isn’t quite as cohesive or linear as i expected and whether I found that annoying or an illustration of the topic depended on my mood.

Sometimes i was annoyed by the author - how seriously she took herself and her own pain, how not seriously she took that of others until it was A Crisis. But mostly i was grateful she was willing to show less flattering parts of herself and of course i judged her most harshly where our failings align.

Calling low points in life "wintering" definitely attracted me to this book. I like the cyclical aspect of the metaphor, its opposition with the notion of an eternal summer that we should aspire to even though it's impossible, but after reading this book, I have mixed feelings about it.

On one hand, I highlighted several passages, on the other hand most of the time the author's sensitivity or comparisons did nothing for me. I felt like the book remained a collection of loosely connected autobiographical passages, comparisons with animals like dormice, robins or wolves, and a few interviews of people who went through their own winters. But it never became more than the sum of its parts.

Brilliant

This is a powerful book about seeing yourself and your life not as linear but as cyclical. It’s not about depression, but if you are feeling dissatisfied with your life, or if you’re going through a tough time it’s a book that I would very much recommend.

Unmistakably written from a position of privilege, I nonetheless found this book to be a kind of warm hug; the written equivalent of a cup of hot chocolate on an icy day. I did find myself occasionally irritated by how carefree this supposedly troublesome life actually was, but mostly I found myself yearning to live in the Love, Actually world she seems to inhabit.

It's a lovely book to read for the season. Wintering is not just about how we survive winter - it's about how we survive when our life "winters" and we need to rest. Society doesn't really easily support those who need to recuperate, but Mays argues this isn't something that may happen - it's part of the natural cycle of life. Just as animals winter, so do humans. As part of her exploration, she catalogs some winter celebrations, including celebrating Yule at Stonehenge with the pagans, Saint Lucia's celebration, seeing the Aurora Borealis in person, and, of course, she discusses the practice of hygge.