Books Sparking Joy - Enchantment: Awakening Wonder In an Anxious Age by Katherine May
Welcome to my first book review entry for RPMT. I hope to feature a variety of titles that echo the KonMari© philosophy.
I just finished Enchantment: Awakening Wonder In an Anxious Age and I knew I had to share it here! Katherine May is also the author of Wintering which deserves its own entry in this review series. Enchantment did release after Wintering, but they can be read in any order. Both are collections of short essays that can be easily picked up and read during the breaks in a busy life, or they can be enjoyed in longer reading sessions if you have the luxury of time. I believe this was done purposefully.
Much of this book was written during and immediately after the lockdowns during the Covid pandemic. Katherine had lost her comfort in things she loved such as reading and ocean swimming due to the stresses of the forced quarantines and several health issues. The book is broken down into sections headed by the four elements; Earth, Water, Fire, and Air, plus an epilogue titled Aether (the mysterious fifth element of alchemy). Through each element she literally and metaphorically pushes herself through the discomfort, ennui, and uncertainty that had settled around her life. She learns to reawaken the habit of looking for enchantment. We are reminded that we must be active participants in wonder.
This is just the first of concepts and passages in Enchantment that I believe relate well to Marie Kondo’s system. We have become dulled and shaped by a world that fills us with constant information. Information can be seen as an element that affects every aspect of our lives, and when it comes at us like a flood we barely have time and space to get oriented much less control our own attention. The process of KonMari Tidying is an act of conscientious participation. This is why we recommend turning off all the media around us, at most playing wordless ambient music that will not be distracting or affect our decision making process.
In the Fire section she references “Deep Play”. This is a state where you have “…complete absorption in something that doesn’t matter to the external world, but which matters completely to you.”. The joy checking process can be an immersion into deep play. You bring your focus to a sharp point noticing everything about each item and how your body responds to it. You find your childlike joy in your possessions and learn to ignore the “adult” voices saying “you should”, “but what if”, and “you must or must not”. When those thoughts intrude I try to identify whose voice I’m hearing and it helps me ignore them in favor of my own feelings.
A beautiful essay refers to the memories of her grandparents’ home “Time moved more slowly there. The afternoons were long. Everything we owned was carefully kept and mended.”. And “If we start to re-enchant the most fundamental parts of our existence - the food, the objects that we use, the places we inhabit - we can begin to restore our connection between our bodies and the land… We must learn to become better keepers of the things that matter.”. I really believe this is one of the most important parts of KonMari. Giving ourselves space and time to appreciate both the objects and the time we give to them. The old New England rhyme echoes this “Use it up, Wear it out, Make do, Or do without”. The act of constantly acquiring and disposing puts us in that information tsunami that’s designed to keep us inside, clicking away, feeding it with our own personal information. KonMari asks us to slow down and appreciate the space and time we have.
“Hierophany - that revelation of the sacred - is something we bring to everyday things, rather than something that is given to us.” Joy is a sacred thing. It is a moment of pure satisfaction. Many people may describe their joy in many different ways. But when we look for it, when it’s found, when we recognize it, it captures our attention. It enchants us.
Enchantment: Awakening Wonder In an Anxious Age by Katherine May, Riverhead Books, Penguin Random House, ISBN: 9780593329993
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May, Riverhead Books, Penguin Random House, ISBN: 9780593189481
