The Importance of Surprising

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"I was walking the other day and I saw these kids playing tag," he says. "And I thought, Oh, tag, what a great game." There is definitely something about surprise about something that's about something being made sort of available to us in some way or another,. He continues: "It delights me that you live in a place with hummingbirds like I've never seen a hummingbird".

Welcome to the Wintering Sessions with Katherine May.

This week, Katherine talks to Ross Gay about finding delight in dark times.

Ross’s practice of writing down a daily delight - a small surprise or pleasure that might otherwise go unnoticed - is the foundation of The Book of Delights, his bestselling essay collection. Here, he talks about the way that delight can sit alongside our fear, anger, frustration and grief, not to block them out, but to find a way to survive them. Along the way, we touch on fleeting moments of human connection, the joy of tending a garden, and childlike art of noticing.

In a first for The Wintering Session, Ross closes with a beautiful reading that meditates on the softness of living in a male body.

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