Book Review: Wintering by Katherine May

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times is a beautiful and quietly reassuring book about what happens when life asks us to slow down.

Katherine May uses the seasons as a way of understanding the difficult periods of life — times of illness, grief, exhaustion, uncertainty or change. Rather than seeing these periods as something we need to push through or overcome, she invites us to consider them as a natural part of being human: a time to rest, retreat, reflect and recover.

What I particularly love about Wintering is its gentle challenge to our culture of constant productivity. Sometimes we need to stop trying to bloom and instead give ourselves permission to be where we are. May draws on nature, literature, tradition and her own experiences to explore how slowing down can create space for renewal and a different way of understanding ourselves.

For anyone experiencing burnout, overwhelm, transition or a period of feeling a little lost, this book offers a compassionate reminder that difficult seasons are not failures. They are part of life's rhythms — and we don't have to rush through them.

A gentle, thoughtful and comforting read. One I would highly recommend.