Review by Karina Wetherbee.
No one gets through life without some setbacks or misfortunes; it is the nature of human existence to navigate and weather turbulent times. Those stumbling blocks can seem overwhelming and paralyzing, but they can also be periods of profound growth and change, and can foster a heightened appreciation for the arrival of moments of happiness and success. According to best-selling author Katherine May, those dark times should be embraced and harnessed for restorative growth.
Her 2020 book, Wintering; The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, discusses just that. It is a captivating exploration of the literal and figurative notion of winter, and its fundamental role in the rejuvenation and recovery of one’s spirit and vitality. May dives deeply into the concept of winter, through personal anecdotes, consultations with experts, and via the study of cultural traditions that embrace the dark times. Through her own experimentation and analysis, May determines that “winter is not the death of the life cycle, but the crucible.”
An unexpected family illness was the starting point of her self-reflection, when she found herself in a deep depression, anxious and exhausted, and she felt herself being forced to slow down, inadvertently discovering a stillness that her workaholic self had so long neglected. As is often the case, the impetus to reflect and change did not come by design, but from external events and circumstances. “However it arrives, wintering is usually involuntary, lonely, and deeply painful,” she writes, but it is essential, and great beauty and insight can be found there.
She examines the potential of winter as an antidote to life’s insecurities and to the modern world’s overwhelming societal expectations. It is no surprise that much of her research and analysis focuses on the cultures of Scandinavia, those northern landscapes where winter has long been embraced for its restorative attributes—namely the cold temperatures and the fragility and scarcity of light. In Norway, Iceland, and Finland, for example, the natural rhythms of the earth seem closer and more visceral than in many other places, and the inhabitants of those regions have, for generations, learned that marking those rhythms is crucial, a tap root to something vital, something ancient and fundamental.
The darkness of the winter months, she writes, brings one closer to “liminal space, a crossing point between the mundane and the magical.” In winter, there are many moments to step out of the ordinary. Rituals and ceremony help tap into those singular, determinate reminders that existence is not a linear experience. Rather, it is a Fibonacci-esque spiraling cycle, and even a particularly challenging winter is a good reminder “that our present will one day become a past, and our future will be our present.” We only need to learn to embrace it.
Karina Wetherbee, a Keystone, Colorado native, and part of the long-time Crestone Dercum family, has been a writer since 2004, with a memoir and a novel. She has been a professional photographer and watercolor artist for many years. She wrote regular book review columns for The Summit Daily and Vail Daily, and is now contributing monthly book reviews to The Crestone Eagle.