Wintering

The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

De: Katherine May

Narrado por: Rebecca Lee

Brought to you by Penguin.

This is wintering. It is the courage to stare down the worst parts of our experience and commit to healing them the best we can.

Wintering is a poignant and comforting meditation on the fallow periods of life, times when we must retreat to care for and repair ourselves. Katherine May thoughtfully shows us 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 interwoven 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.

'My favourite book of the last five years' CAITLIN MORAN

'Every bit as beautiful and healing as the season itself' ELIZABETH GILBERT

'Absolutely beautiful' CHERYL STRAYED

© Katherine May 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

©2020 Katherine May (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Delightful, poetic, hopeful, uplifting

What a find. I treasure this one. This book is a very special type of magical, a gentle, wise and self-loving meander through difficult times. A fresh perspective on the cold and dark times we experience, in cycles, over and over again. Everybody winters. Everybody should read this. It’s filled with love.

Inspiring acknowledgment of reality

I loved the realism of the difficult times, the acknowledgement, the lack of sweetness.. the valuing of the human disposition .. and the positivity of trust in the cycles of life or nature or people or the self.. My only reservation was that, amid a superbly interpreted narration, the reader’s mispronunciation of words like ‘cailleach’ jarred.. there were just a few.. but they implied less than oneness with the text.

Extraordinary

What an amazing book! Incredibly deep and soothing, full of insight. A true remedy for all of us.

Beautifully written and narrated with such feeling.

Throughly enjoyed listening to the story and I shall certainly enjoy listening to once again.

Chicken soup for COVID-19

I’ve been on Audible for about five years and never bothered with a review, but Catherine deserves this. This book is astonishingly good and incredibly timely. I was irritated in the beginning looking for a bunch of bullet points on the value of winter… Instead what I got was a beautifully written and superbly well read Story...truly connecting me back to the essence of living. Thank you to all involved in this beautiful production.

Absolutely loved this book!

A must read for everyone! I recommend it to anyone finding themselves in a retreat, renewal or quiet time of their lives. The book gently guides one through nature writing, memoir and mythology. Thank you Katherine May, and thank you to the narrator. This book is beautiful!

Soul Soothing

This is a slow reading type of book full of anecdotes and facts about winter that allow you to feel cozy and understand that winter is coming, is here and is welcomed.

Exquisitely written and told

I absolutely loved this book. So beautifully crafted and with so much I could relate to. I will listen again next time I am wintering. And the time after.

Winter’s gift

Thank you Katherine May and Rebecca Lee for this gift of a book which I will listen to many more times I imagine. For somehow, your reflective insights on the remarkable gifts of wintering in nature are not simply another illuminating solution to some of life’s most difficult transitions, they are the very balm one needs to apply as and when these seasons of change, of closing down, of letting go and waiting arise. These are the times when your gentle, flowing, fascinating and soothing narrative does its wonderful work, often at around 3 or 4 am in the morning when neither the rational nor the bold are able to calm or nourish the anxious soul the way you do. Beautiful book, delightful reader. Thank you

But enough about me, what do you think about me….

Ouf. No. Self introversion at its most tedious. Beautifully narrated. But not great thinking…. Sorry