How the Wintering book by Katherine May Helped me through my own Winter

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! AS HEARD ON NPR MORNING EDITION AND ON BEING WITH KRISTA TIPPETT
“Katherine May opens up exactly what I and so many need to hear but haven't known how to name.” —Krista Tippett, On Being
“Every bit as beautiful and healing as the season itself. . . . This is truly a beautiful book.” —Elizabeth Gilbert   "Proves that there is grace in letting go, stepping back and giving yourself time to repair in the dark...May is a clear-eyed observer and her language is steady, honest and accurate—capturing the sense, the beauty and the latent power of our resting landscapes." —Wall Street Journal
An intimate, revelatory book exploring the ways we can care for and repair ourselves when life knocks us down.
Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a break up, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered.
A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May's story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat. Illumination emerges from many sources: solstice celebrations and dormice hibernation, C.S. Lewis and Sylvia Plath, swimming in icy waters and sailing arctic seas.
Ultimately Wintering invites us to change how we relate to our own fallow times. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear. A secular mystic, May forms a guiding philosophy for transforming the hardships that arise before the ushering in of a new season.

Have you ever read a book and felt that the universe understood exactly what you needed at that moment? This what Wintering for me was. I forgot how I found out about this book; all I remember is that I had received some bad news from a dr and basically, I had some last chance to turn my health around before I was confined to a wheelchair, among other things. At first, I thought it would be super easy to switch my diet to keto and lose a massive about of weight and all of that. But, I honestly did not that it would be as hard as it has been and that I would have no mental energy to do anything else.

[bctt tweet=”Wintering is a season in the cold. It is 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.” username=”purplemoonmyst”]

My hold on Wintering came in for me at the library, and I have been reading a LOT. I know this blog had some serious tumbleweeds blowing through it, but I HAVE been reading (and watching Simon the Duke on Nextflix, I tell you that burn for you speech was super romantic). Anyway, I dove into Wintering, and I realized that the unease I was feeling was perfectly normal and ok if I felt the need to isolate myself and watch Bridgerton over and over again while my brain was busy pressing a ton of “feelings” that was ok also. No need to cancel my Netflix and worry that I never write again.

I wished that I could have read this earlier. It would have been a massive help to me. Instead of panicking that I had not written a word in 14 days, I could have just relaxed and focused more on working out what was bothering me. The fact that I wrote this is a good indication that I have finally come to terms with my health, and instead of despair, I feel a tiny bit of hope that if I did what my dr said, I could be reasonably healthy for a long time.

The author herself was dealing with an autoimmune disorder when she got the idea for this book.  I think those that work for themselves became burnt out on the whole hustle culture, and after years of pushing ourselves as far as you (I) could, we neglected ourselves, and in the process, we are paying for it with our health.

You cant drive a car empty, and the same goes for our body and braines. I mean, sure, you can last a while, but I have seen myself and others suffer from a whole lot of illness that could have been avoided had we not bought into the entire hustle culture trap.

I was recently diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis, and even though I was in pain for three years, I still hoped that they would find something relatively easy to “fix,” but instead, this was the most significant blow to the health of my life. Even though I was making progress on my self-pity party and started to come back to life, these diagnoses sent e straight back into Wintering. However, I did not give in to despair because I know that one day soon (I hope), I will feel the sunshine, and life will be 10000 times richer and better.