#Ask Jaquie
Agony aunt says spare a thought for the homeless this winter.
QWinter is really bringing me down. I wake up and it’s cold and dark and raining and I come home and it’s cold and dark and raining. Do you have any mood-boosting suggestions?
AEvery time it rains really hard I’m reminded of our homelessness problem.
It’s hard to answer this without sounding like I’m a goody two shoes positive pants. I am a glass-half-full person but I do get tired and grumpy and frustrated a lot. Right now, living with my two tiny flatmates aged 2 and 5, I am starting the day with a tantrum and ending the day with a tantrum. And you should see their behaviour (sorry, mum-joke).
But the thing about having kids is that in trying to make sure they don’t grow up to be complete monsters, I try to teach them compassion and to look at the world differently and that, in turn, reminds me to do the same.
‘‘It’s raining today,’’ I say to my kids. Instead of complaining about it, I say ‘‘how brilliant. The trees and plants will be so pleased to get a good long drink; later we can go and put gumboots on and jump in puddles on the deck! Fun!’’
I’m such a good mum. What actually happens is I watch them jump in puddles from inside with a glass of wine and my feet up. Am I a genius?
I grew up in the UK and in winter it would get dark just after I was home from school. We spent a lot of time indoors, so in many ways this cold, wintry weather is comforting to me. But for anyone who suffers from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) where depression in brought on by lack of sunlight, winter can be a real struggle.
If you can afford it, you might fly to a tropical island for a week. Nice for some. Maybe you are like me and you make a car-journeys playlist of summer songs and sing them really loudly (read; badly) with the heating turned up to max. Honestly, try it. It’s the same as being in Fiji.
Or maybe neither of these are options, because for you, winter isn’t just a time to debut your new wool coat, it’s about survival.
Every time it rains really hard or I shiver and pull my blanket up over me, I’m reminded of our homelessness problem and how lucky I am to live in a warm, dry house. Perspective is everything.
The Big Sleepout is on Thursday, July 7, in Auckland. So far 133 people (including MP Jacinda Ardern, former Waitakere mayor Sir Bob Harvey, Laila Harre, musicians, celebrities and business people) have signed up to sleep rough to raise money to end homelessness. I have donated to a friend of mine who is doing it (Mainard Larkin) because I am not brave enough to do it myself.
I’ll be thinking of those Rough Sleepers on Thursday but more of the people they are doing it for, and I’ll go to sleep extra grateful for the roof over my head.