Winter’s Call to Stillness

Navigating Christmas at a Bear’s Pace

Emma Willmer
3 min readDec 20, 2023
Photo by Alex Padurariu on Unsplash

I’m not a fan of this time of year. I’ve never been a fan of this time of year, but it’s only this year that I’m truly beginning to understand it.

The truth is that I don’t enjoy Christmas.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy spending time with my daughters, and we always have a lovely Christmas.

Still, I always feel a little flat this time of year, and I approach this season reluctantly.

I know there are many reasons I feel this way; lots have to do with my family of origin and my childhood. However, this week, for the first time, I am recognising that my body doesn’t feel the energy it needs to feel at this time of year to make me not move towards Christmas reluctantly.

Over the past few weeks, my body has become increasingly weary.

I used to think I was so tired at Christmas because of the high workload in my previous jobs. But this year, for the first time ever, I no longer have that high workload, and my body feels the same anyway.

It’s not because it’s winter; I am fine in January and February.

But from late November onwards, I can feel the energy being drained from me bit by bit every day as we get closer to the winter solstice.

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Emma Willmer

🌟 Empowering neurodivergent women to embrace confidence & self-compassion. Super-late diagnosed ADHD, now on the autism diagnosis journey 🌸 #YouMatter