Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May

Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May

Read by Rebecca Lee

5 hours, 8 minutes

Published February 2023 by Penguin Publishing Group 

Publisher's Summary: 

Many of us feel trapped in a grind of constant change: rolling news cycles, the chatter of social media, our families split along partisan lines. We feel fearful and tired, on edge in our bodies, not quite knowing what has us perpetually depleted. For Katherine May, this low hum of fatigue and anxiety made her wonder what she was missing. Could there be a different way to relate to the world, one that would allow her to feel more rested and at ease, even as seismic changes unfold on the planet? Might there be a way for all of us to move through life with curiosity and tenderness, sensitized to the subtle magic all around? 

In Enchantment, May invites the reader to come with her on a journey to reawaken our innate sense of wonder and awe. With humor, candor, and warmth, she shares stories of her own struggles with work, family, and the aftereffects of pandemic, particularly feelings of overwhelm as the world rushes to reopen. Craving a different way to live, May begins to explore the restorative properties of the natural world, moving through the elements of earth, water, fire, and air and identifying the quiet traces of magic that can be found only when we look for them. Through deliberate attention and ritual, she unearths the potency and nourishment that come from quiet reconnection with our immediate environment. Blending lyricism and storytelling, sensitivity and empathy, Enchantment invites each of us to open the door to human experience in all its sensual complexity, and to find the beauty waiting for us there.

My Thoughts: 

Three years ago I read Katherine May's Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times and came away understanding better my need, both in general and at a time when we were just coming out of the worst of CoVid, to retreat from the world. I loved both May's personal story and the ideas she shared that could help others get through low times in their lives. So, as a person who deals with anxiety, I was eager to read this one. 

What I liked: 

• Once again May is incredibly open and honest about her struggles with mental illness. 
• I loved the idea of trying to regain the sense of awe of the natural world that she had as a child, as all children tend to have. It's one of the reasons I so enjoy sitting on my patio on a lovely June evening and waiting for the fire flies to appear, reminding me of the neighborhood children capturing them in mason jars. 
• I appreciated the push to look for the beauty in nature, even where it's not always so obvious. It's easy to be take nature for granted, to be so wrapped up in our own lives that we don't take the time to look around us. I'm always taken by the intricacy of bare tree branches against the blue sky in the winter, for example. 
• Rebecca Lee does a fine job as the reader. 

What didn't work for me: 

• This is probably more on me than May, because I was expected to come away with specific ideas I could transfer to my own life, rather than just generalizations which was what I felt like I got. 
• This book felt much more specific to May and less relatable to other people. Well, at least to this person. It was a disappointment because I had such high hopes for it.