Reflective Reading: Wintering

I recently finished Wintering: The Power of Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May. It’s a perfect book for this time of year and this year in particular. Below are a few passages that stood out to me (among many.) Reflective Reading is the practice of reading slowly, looking for the invitation and truth in each passage. Reflective Reading invites us to slow down and savor words and their meaning. Read each passage slowly, more than one time. Think about how the passage makes you feel. Notice what words or phrases stand out. Consider if there is an invitation for you to see something new. Most importantly, don’t rush. Savor the words. “If happiness is a skill, then sadness is, too. Perhaps through all those years at school, or perhaps through other terrors, we are taught to ignore sadness, to stuff it down into our satchels and pretend it isn’t there. As adults, we often have to learn to hear the clarity of its call. That is wintering. It is the active acceptance of sadness. It is the practice of allowing ourselves to feel it as a need. It is the courage to stare down the worst parts of our experience and to commit to healing them the best we can. Wintering is a moment of intuition, our true needs felt keenly as a knife.” ― Katherine May, Wintering:The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times “Nobody had ever said to me before, “You need to live a life that you can cope with, not the one that other people want. Start saying no. Just do one thing a day. No more than two social events in a week.” I owe my life to him.” ― Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times “In The Wisdom of Insecurity, Watts makes a case that always convinces me, but which I always seem to forget: that life is, by its very nature, uncontrollable. That we should stop trying to finalise our comfort and security, and instead find a radical acceptance of the endless, unpredictable change that is the very essence of this life. Our suffering, he says, comes from the fight we put up against this fundamental truth.” ― Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times May you winter well, and in the wintering may you find peace, joy, love, and abundance. If you like these questions, please consider SUBSCRIBING to The Art of Powering Down; Questions to Recharge Your Soul… Every week there is a question that will gently challenge you, encourage you, or help you live your life with more intention, grace, and purpose. (Sharing these reflections and questions with friends is the greatest compliment!)

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