Journaling, moon phases, and living a little more slowly.
I keep a running list at the back of my journal and copy it here now and then. Mostly slow, quiet books — the kind you can put down mid-chapter without losing the thread. Newest at the top.
The Salt Path re-reading
I first read this on a train and had to stop because I was crying in a very public carriage. It's a walking memoir, but it's really about what you carry and what you can put down. I come back to it whenever I catch myself over-planning my life. Nobody plans a coast path; you just take the next headland.
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times
The book that gave me language for the flat winters. May argues that fallow seasons aren't failures to be fixed but part of the cycle, the way a field lies bare on purpose. I underlined most of the middle third. It pairs strangely well with a hot water bottle and a very early night.
H is for Hawk
Grief, a goshawk, and the moors — not obviously a comforting read, and yet. Macdonald pays such fierce attention to the natural world that it made my own noticing feel lazy by comparison, in the best way. I read it in autumn, which felt correct.
The Book of Delights on the nightstand
A year of very short essays, each about something small that delighted the author. I've started keeping my own delights at the bottom of the morning page because of this book. It's a gentle rebellion against a world that wants you anxious. Highly recommend reading one essay a night rather than gulping it.
The Living Mountain
Slim, strange, and decades ahead of its time. Shepherd writes about the Cairngorms not as something to conquer but to be with. I read a few pages before bed and it slows my breathing down. If you only try one book from this list, maybe this one.
Notes on a Nervous Planet
I picked this up in a low, over-scrolled patch and it was the right medicine. Short chapters, plain honesty about anxiety and attention. Not every note landed for me, but enough did that I've kept it on the shelf within arm's reach.