As I write this blog, today is the first day of December. I am a big fan of movies. Christmas movies are some of the best. Some of my favorites. If you follow my blog, you already know I’m a movie buff. You can get drawn in and live vicariously.
In the movie, ‘Last Holiday’, the main character played by Queen Latifah, is delightful. She experiences a transition of her life from what appears to be day to day, dull and boring to a what would you do if you only have 3 weeks to live. Spoiler alert; she was misdiagnosed but I digress yet again.
I have watched this movie countless times and it always is fun and insightful. In the beginning, her life boils down to work, church, home, rinse and repeat. But on this one fateful day she gets knocked out when she hits her head while at work and her life begins to change.
I won’t go through the entire movie, (aren’t you glad) however, her employer has her go through a cat scan reluctantly and she’s told she has a fatal brain tumor. She decides to cash in all her chips and spend every last dime in a gorgeous place located in the Czech Republic. And she tries to blow all her dough. A little play on words as she loves cooking.
Since she believes she only has 3 weeks to live, she takes every possible risk she can and even tries to gamble away her money. She keeps winning and doing great feats. Near the end she is standing in front of her mirror dressed to the nines and says, “Next time…we will laugh more, we’ll love more, we just won’t be so afraid.” What?
For many of us it takes getting near what we think is the end or near the end of our lives to realize we have yet to live. That is a sad statement isn’t it? Let’s take a few moments here to explore. Life is what we make of it. Truth!
Now this is a Christmas blog and I want to encourage you to start living now. In the movie she made a decision not to feel sorry for herself but to hit the slopes literally, buy the clothes, eat what she loves, jump on a helicopter to get to the hotel, go to the spa. In the process of enjoying what she thought were her last days, she changed the lives of so many people around her.
Make this holiday one to remember. Don’t wait! Be brave and not so afraid! Laugh more! Love more! Bottom line, LIVE like it’s your last chance. Who knows, you may just change the life of someone around you.
