Wintering | Katherine May

Why it is included: We live in a culture that demands eternal summer—endless growth, happiness, and visibility.

Katherine May argues that this is biologically impossible. Drawing on the natural world, she reframes periods of depression, failure, and isolation not as errors, but as a necessary season: Winter.

We include this because it provides a "Naturalist's Strategy" for crisis.

Instead of urging us to "fight" the darkness (resilience), May teaches us the active skill of "Wintering"—how to retreat, shed what is dead (like trees shedding leaves), and conserve energy for the inevitable return of the light.

It is a compassionate manual for surviving the dormant phases of life without shame, reminding us that rest is not the death of work, but the sustenance of it.