What’s it about:

Resting, retreating, stepping off the treadmill of life, having breakdowns, rebuilding in times of need… that sort of thing.

What Lynn learned:

• Choosing to winter is painful, yet an essential part of human-ing to grow.

• That it is possible for another human being to sum up my experiences completely.

• No one is actually meant to enjoy wild swimming – they go to get the good feeling after.

• That parenting a child who doesn’t ‘fit’ in the education system is confusing and complicated.

• Sometimes everyone knows the mad person is right.

• Often we use our strength and income from ‘successful’ periods in our lives to survive the fallow periods. Makes sense. No one talks about that.

Fave quotes:

• “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.”

• ”In summer, I want big, splashy ideas and trashy page-turners, devoured while lounging in a garden chair or perching on one of the breakwaters on the beach. In winter, I want concepts to chew over in a pool of lamplight—slow, spiritual reading, a reinforcement of the soul. Winter is a time for libraries, the muffled quiet of bookstacks and the scent of old pages and dust”

• “When I started feeling the drag of winter, I began to treat myself like a favoured child: with kindness and love. I assumed my needs were reasonable and that my feelings were signals of something important. I kept myself well fed and made sure I was getting enough sleep. I took myself for walks in the fresh air and spent time doing things that soothed me. I asked myself: What is this winter all about? I asked myself: What change is coming?”

• ”The times when we fall out of sync with everyday life remain taboo. We’re not raised to recognise wintering or to acknowledge its inevitability. Instead, we tend to see it as a humiliation, something that should be hidden from view lest we shock the world too greatly. We put on a brave public face and grieve privately; we pretend not to see other people’s pain. We treat each wintering as an embarrassing anomaly that should be hidden or ignored”

Why relevant right now:

It’s winter, duh.

Interest factor: 4/5

Coffee table cred: 3/5

Ignorance of external world while reading: 5/5

Book cover design: 3/5

Help the existential crisis: 4.5/5