Wintering, Katherine May Pt1 03/01/21 Living From Happiness

<p class="p1">We're beginning to wake up, to emerge from the darkness of the literal winter, as well as the “wintering” we’ve had to endure as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.</p> <p class="p1">Not quite ready, though. nature needs us to be mindful and intentional about how quickly we emerge.</p> <p class="p1">Just this morning, I saw another reminder on Facebook about not clearing out old leaves and dead-looking plant stems from our gardens until the temperature is consistently over 50 degrees. ‘Cause, who knew? butterflies and bees and other pollinators overwinter in those places.</p> <p class="p1">If I clear out the dead-looking stuff in the garden too soon, some very important members of our ecosystem get lost in the process.</p> <p class="p1">The same with beginning to re-emerge from the past pandemic hell year. A small percentage of folks have gotten fully vaccinated; many more have received their first shot. And millions have yet to get any.</p> <p class="p1">Those who've received vaccinations must hold onto their impatience for freedom, and continue wearing good masks and socially distancing so that the rest of the human ecosystem can catch up.</p> <p class="p1">As the literal winter is ending in the northern hemisphere, so too the metaphorical wintering caused by pandemic lockdowns. This metaphorical wintering is an energetic, emotional, and psychological wintering.</p> <p class="p1">The idea comes from a beautiful book written by Katherine May, called <em>Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times</em>.</p> <p class="p1">Here’s how she describes it:</p> <p class="p3"><em>"Wintering is a season in the cold. It is a fallow period in life when you’re cut off from the world, feeling rejected, side-lined, blocked from progress, or cast into the role of an outsider. Perhaps it results from an illness or a life event such as a bereavement or the birth of a child; perhaps it comes from a humiliation or failure. Perhaps you’re in a period of transition and have temporarily fallen between two w