There's a House With a Roof

Roof Over Your Head Day

Today is a day for appreciating

what you have, r

ather than looking around you

 and wishing for more.

I think living in rural Thailand

as a teenager has helped me

to know how lucky I am.

I’ve seen people living in boxes…

 in homes built from cardboard,

scrap metal and pieces of board.

 I’ve talked and played with kids,

living in slums,

and been surprised by their smiles.

I’ve seen people

huddled against vents,

 in the snow,

trying to stay warm

on wet pavements.

Now, years and years later,

I hear the wind whistling

around my house,

beating at the windows

and fighting against the

branches of the trees…

and I think I’m lucky.

When the rain is beating down

and I’m rugged up inside,

warm and dry,

I often imagine how awful

it would be to be sleeping outside.

(Writing this, I realise

I should probably do more

 to try to help…)

on any given night in Australia,

 105,000 people

are sleeping outside,

fighting the elements.

 Nearly half of this number

is made up of people

under the age of 25.

Most of these people

fall in the category of

secondary homelessness,

which means they move

from shelter to shelter to shelter

 to boarding home to shelter…

Imagine having to carry

everything you own…

never knowing whether you’d be

 warm enough at night or

whether you’d be in a bed…

imagine finding a shower

you could use,

in order to clean yourself…

and then, there’s food.

Without money,

where does it come from?

 How do you cook it

without a home?

Today is Roof Over Your Head Day.

It’s the day to be

ever so grateful to be

lucky enough

to have the things you need.

(It might even be a good day

 to clean out the cupboards

and donate

your unwanted stuff

to charities…

or, you could donate money

to one of the many charities

 which help get people

 back on their feet.)