Everyone winters at one time or another, perhaps it is a result of illness, death in the family, the pressures of work…or a pandemic. Wintering is a period of isolation when you feel like you fall between the cracks of life and feel blocked from progress.

In this episode, best selling author Katherine May shares tips on how to embrace the winter of our lives in small ways and how to recognize the process and engage with it mindfully. She shows us how to slow down, pay attention to moments of transition, and learn to prepare for the next phase. By embracing winter and really listening to its messages, we can learn about ourselves and also, more importantly, we can learn to look more kindly on other people’s crises. As Katherine says, “we may never choose to winter, but we can choose how.” I loved this empowering and thoughtful conversation, and I know you will too.

WINTERING: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May is a brilliant narrative nonfiction book rich with nature writing, poetry and mythology, philosophy, and memoir – all elegantly exploring ways the natural world tries to teach us, over and over, to take a season of deep rest and retreat. Liz Gilbert loved the book saying it is, “every bit as beautiful and healing as the season itself. . . . This is truly a beautiful book.”Wintering is a contemplative, hopeful, consoling book. "I recognized winter," she writes. "I greeted it and let it in...Nature shows that survival is a practice."

Here is a video of Katherine talking about Wintering: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a5APKn8u4I She has a beautiful way of telling her story and also has started a podcast sharing other peoples’ experiences called The WinteringSessions. Connect with Katherine on Instagram @katherinemay_

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