The Power and Value of “Wintering”

The book’s primary focus is on the experience of “wintering” which, as the author defines it in the Prologue, is a separation from outward, physical activity in order to engage in a period of inner, psycho-emotional transitioning. That transitioning, as the author portrays it, can be associated with experiences ranging from a need for safety to a need for healing, a need for contemplation to a need for clear decision-making.

Early on, the author suggests that an experience of “wintering” can happen at any point in life in which such a transition-triggered withdrawal, is warranted, necessary, or imposed. Throughout the book, however, her contemplations of the experience are primarily defined by literal and metaphoric circumstances of climate-related winter. These circumstances include winter’s coldness, its relative lack of light, and its effects on the human body, mind, and spirit. In short, she...