I could have never planned the life I have. No lists or aspirational goals could have brought me to where I am now. The only advice I have, if you can even call it that, is to sit as close to heart as you can. It has plans for you, but you must be willing to enter its fire. Patience and devotion are its love language, so feed it well. Never steer from your bullhead, as it will bludgeon the spirit of true inspiration in you, only lead from the humblest part of you. Keep your head bowed, with the word mercy on your tongue, as you are eroded by tenderness and shown who you are. Take what is given, and feel the blessings living in you. Know that every moment is more than enough. Only when you can see this will you close the vast divide between you and your longing. This heartbeat in a body, this perfect iris of the eye, loved itself into being. This breath inside the breath in you is God incarnate. Follow this, know this, and thanks will be your only words and action.

Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through. Wintering is a time of withdrawing from the world, maximizing scant resources, carrying out acts of brutal efficiency and vanishing from sight; but that’s where the transformation occurs. Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible.

Katherine May