Get uplifted, watch “It’s A Wonderful Life”

Merry Christmas! Almost! Wow, it’s here again! 

I’m wishing you a wonderful, fabulous happy Christmas and I want to tell you again (I say this to everyone every year), please, please, please watch “It’s A Wonderful Life,” the movie with Jimmy Stewart during this holiday season. 

It is such an incredible parable of how we can go from hating our lives to total gratitude and love in an instant.

We all know that real happiness comes from living a life that matters — that includes love, connection and service. And for so much of it, all we have to do is shift our thinking around. Just like Jimmy Stewart does in the movie.

It’s Christmas and one of the Christmas traditions that I’ve had for many years is to watch the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” each year. If you don’t do that, or especially if you’ve never seen the movie, you have to see it and I hope you’ll watch it again. There are 2 reasons why I want you to watch it or watch it again… 
Because it will make you feel good. It will fill you with Christmas cheer. It will make you laugh and it will make you cry, but mainly it will just make you feel good and that’s what all of this is all about. 
 
But here’s the other reason why I want you to watch it – it’s because of the backstory and of what happened with the movie and why it’s such a wonderful story about second chances. 
 
The movie came out in 1946, the year after the end of the second World War. It stars Jimmy Stewart, a very famous Hollywood actor and he was just back from serving as a pilot in the war. It was directed by Frank Capra, a very famous Hollywood director who also served in World War II. 
 
It’s the story of George Bailey, a small town boy who has dreams of traveling the world, but when his father dies unexpectedly, he has to take over the family business, a savings and loan company that makes home loans for people who don’t have a lot of money. 
He falls in love, gets married and has children, but he always feels he never really got to live the life he wanted. Then his uncle loses some of the savings and loan money, and George is faced with ruin.
It’s so seriously awful that he’s thinking about suicide, he’s about to jump off a bridge, when an angel is sent down from heaven to help him. The angel jumps in first and George saves him, and then the angel shows George how life in their small town would have been without him.
George sees the incredible impact he’s had on the lives of so many people and he truly appreciates all the love he has in his life. His life is saved but even more than that, it’s completely renewed. He has a second chance at his life. 
 
The movie came out and it was a flop. It got mixed reviews and very little box office time. It went into that place of the forgotten movie. And then a weird thing happened – the copyright lapsed and the movie went into the public domain. That meant television stations could show it, at no cost. Suddenly this once-forgotten movie started to be shown every year at Christmas and for many people, myself included, it’s a Christmas tradition each and every year. 
 
Both Jimmy Steward and Frank Capra always said it was their favorite film they had ever made. 
 
So just like George Bailey in the story, the movie got its own second chance and is now a beloved classic. 
 
Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t it a wonderful Christmas story to know that even if we’re in the pit of despair like George was, we can have a second chance?
All it takes it to look around and appreciate what we have, to recognize the love that we have in our lives. 
 
So please, watch the movie, feel the love and I hope you have a very merry and joy-filled Christmas.