This time of year is difficult for me. To say I dread it is an over-statement, but I do steel myself for it and it's an exercise in endurance getting through it.

I struggle with being alone. I'm not lonely though, don't get me wrong. And I don't want to surround myself with people.

Struggling with being alone — and liking, in fact needing it — particularly at this time of year, is a kind of existential paradox. It's part conditioning of mind and part circumstance and preference.

Allow me to explain. No, perhaps elaborating is more plausible.