Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times (New York: Riverhead Books, 2020).

Now that much of the world is emerging after a more-than-year-long season of pandemic-driven isolation and anxiety, Katherine May's Wintering may provide a means to think through all that has occurred within our private and corporate psyches. In memoir-like fashion, May artfully shares her own life as a backdrop to draw the reader to understand wintering.

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. Perhaps it results from an illness or a life event such as a bereavement or the birth of a child; perhaps it comes from a humiliation or failure. Perhaps you're in a period of transition and have temporarily fallen between two worlds. Some winterings creep upon us more slowly, accompanying the protracted death of a relationship, the gradual ratcheting up of caring responsibilities as our parents age, the drip-drip-drip of lost confidence (10).

May's writing style is articulate, graceful, precise and expansive. Word-lovers will find a delightful repast served on a vocabularic table of plenitude. Especially enchanting are her connections between the worlds of nature (plant life, birds, bees) and the vicissitudes of human experience. Not to be missed are her carefully crafted descriptions of the thrumming life within the beehive, the glory of aurora borealis and the joyful elation of the robin.

Divided by seasonal months ("September" through "March") Wintering is a credible journey through life's dark valleys and frigid vistas, helping the reader dislodge him- or herself from emotional "stuck-ness" in order to experience the truth of life: there are deep, difficult moments of hardship, but there are also times when winter breaks into spring, with renewed life, vigor and song.

Whether you are currently wintering, have had a history of cold, dark times or recognize you are on the verge of entering such a season once again, you need to read this book. May does not encourage the reader to avoid winter seasons, but rather to embrace these times for the eventual good such times bring to our deepest human yearnings.