Sitting at home right now I can’t help but feel lucky.
I have a home, a car and a large and loving family as well as a beautiful wife. However, it’s at this time that you have to spare a thought for the less fortunate.
Milton Keynes has one of the highest homeless populations in the UK and just a short walk through the shopping centre, under the underpasses reveals exactly that. You see so many tents, sleeping bags and mattresses and with the weather as bad as it has been you pray that these people can find shelter.
We recently had a picnic at work where people all brought in something different and then we all pigged out essentially. I mean it lasted for three days!
As we left for Christmas today (some of us for the last time until the New Year) we still had loads left. So one kind-hearted soul suggested that if we were going to be walking past someone who was less well-off then we should give them some of our leftovers. A small gesture but one that will make so much difference to someone else in need.
I’m so glad we didn’t just waste it. It’s so easy to get carried away in life when things don’t quite go your way, we all have setbacks, hell I’ve had a few just in the last couple of months but at least we have a home to go to where we can get warm.
We have our health and we have people around us who love us. If nothing else then we are actually extremely lucky.
So spare a thought for those less fortunate than you this year. It’s so easy to just look at someone and imagine you know how they got to where they are.
When I was working at the Citizen newspaper I had the humbling experience of interviewing someone who was spending their time in a shelter. They had wound up there as they were devastated after the death of their wife. They couldn’t work so they couldn’t pay their bills and so on and so on, it spiralled. So they ended up on the streets.
So this Christmas and across the holiday period, while you’re spending time with family and friends make sure you appreciate that time and remember how lucky you are.