Thankfulness, every day - Nineteen

It has been cold this week. Frosty, icy, wintery (not autumnal) cold. I had to surrender this evening and turn on my heating. I'm sitting here now with a hot water bottle, wearing several layers of clothing, a small fleecy blanket wrapped around me, a cup of tea to hand and the radiators on, and I am still conscious of the chill. I know that I'll thaw and in a little while, I'll be feeling toasty.

On my way home tonight I passed several guys who sleep rough in the area and it struck me, as it always does at this time of year, how very fortunate I am not to have to live like that. 

I get quite grumpy in the cold. I am not a cold weather soul, and my body's not designed for it either. I've learnt how to arm myself against it and to get on regardless and I'm definitely more acclimatised now than when I first moved to wintery climes but I can't see myself ever fully embracing it. My heart shrivels, my body hurts, and I'm not much fun to be around. I've even been known to cry with discomfort and petulance in severely cold situations (like when I fell off a raft into a river of barely melted snow and ice and then had to sit in the bitter air on the boat for several hours before making landfall). I can't begin to imagine how I'd make it through a night outside in this weather, with only what these guys have available to deal with it, let alone an entire season. Maybe it would be character building but I suspect it would actually just do me in. I know their problems are often much greater than just getting through a cold night but that one thing alone puts my own situation so neatly into perspective.

I am so thankful for that reality check, for my hot water bottle (and the rest),  and that I have not had to find out the hard way how they make it through. And for charities like this.