Today is Gratitude Day!

Continuing my list of '100 Gratitudes', I am grateful for...

45. Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition - this exhibition is on every year at the Natural History Museum and I always love to go. The photos are always amazing. I especially like the nature shots - when photos show how remarkable, and beautiful, Mother Earth is I can't help but be filled with gratitude and awe for this planet of ours.
Here are the links to my three favourite photos from the 2010 competition -

http://bit.ly/gZ3QvJ

http://bit.ly/hyFVzu

http://bit.ly/bqMA5Q

46. 'Conversations with God' by Neale Donald Walsch - when I first heard about this book I admit I was sceptical. And I wasn't the least bit interested in reading a religious book about a man talking to God. But years later I was browsing in a bookshop and it caught my eye. I read the first few pages...and I was hooked! This book isn't a religious text at all. It's a spiritual book filled with New Age ideas. God is love. God is life energy. God is everywhere and everything. This was the first book that spoke those words to me. This was the first time I was offered an alternative definition of 'God'. No longer was 'God' a white-bearded man in the sky. 'God' became an energy that is within us. This was my first glimpse of my own divinity. Reading this book helped me discover how magnificent each and every one of us is - that 'God' is not some special person we should all hope to be. We are all God. We are all divine. Already.

47. 'Avatar' - Ok, so plot wise this movie is predictable, but what I really loved about this film was its spiritual message. The Na'vi people live in harmony with their planet. They are one with Mother Nature. They communicate with animals. Everything and everybody is connected; they share a spiritual bond. Life is what matters.

48. my warm puffa coat - ahh my down-filled coat; I love you! It's like having a doona (that's a duvet for all you non-Australians!) wrapped around me all day long. And yesterday it was cold enough here in London to wear it. Yesterday my puffa coat had its first outing for the season. Freezing cold weather not something to be grateful for? Come on, winter is inevitable. We may as well enjoy it. Summer will come around again. It always does.