Weather, choices and gratitude

Frost on the rooftops the last couple of mornings.    Must have been very cold for those who are forced to sleep outside.  Last Thursday, I met two who camp out, on my way to get groceries.    "Maurice" and "Will" were regulars at the shelter last season and it's always a pleasure to see them.  Each were loaded down with bags of groceries they'd picked up at the food bank that morning.  They'd been carrying these bags around with them all day, and had spent the last while at McDonald's -- free coffees all last week --  and were now on their way to Gilmore United for the 5:30 community meal.

Like me, they are keen observers of the weather this time of year and know the criteria we use for opening the shelter.  Maurice quoted me the lows for the past two nights, then told me the forecasters are calling for a cold winter.  Like me, they were looking forward to the shelter being open again.    I told them we're ready to go and hoped we'll be able to open our doors real soon.

Maurice and Will were on foot and were a couple kilometres from Gilmore United and at least 5 km further to their camps, where they'd arrive tired and in complete darkness, but with full bellies and a good supply of food.

I thought a lot about Maurice and Will as I shopped, selecting produce from the abundance on display, then afterwards as I walked home to a warm house and loving family. I thought about how similar our needs are as humans: food, shelter, companionship, love; yet how different the choices available to us.

But what struck me most was that,  despite their poverty and limited choices, they have such a positive attitude and such gratefulness for what they do have.

None of us has any choice when it comes to the weather -- we all wake up to the same warm sunshine or cold pelting rain.  And none of us has any choice about who our parents are or what comes our way during our lives.  But we all have the same choices in how we react to these circumstances beyond our control.   We can choose to moan and complain or we can learn from people like Maurice and Will, that it's possible to choose acceptance and gratitude for what we do have today, and hope for a better tomorrow.