I’m starting something new on this blog. For the next six months, at the beginning of each month, I will post five to seven inspiring, thought-provoking or funny sayings/quotes that move me or make me smile.

I don’t know about you, but I love words. Words are like art and math to me all at once. (Don’t ask. Somehow, that makes sense to me.) Put the best words together and you can communicate some of the most beautiful and affecting thoughts, ideas, and feelings – all of those inward parts of ourselves that are bursting to escape, to be freed through expression.

In part, I’m doing this for me. So that not only will I have a reason to write more, which has both been a challenge and a tremendous catharsis for me the last nine months, but share more as well. Share a little more of who I am and what resonates with me. How is sharing beneficial for me? Well, I suppose there’s nothing else like hearing someone else say, “Me, too.” I don’t believe there are any other words in the English language capable of dispelling the notion that you’re alone or a big weirdo.

I’m calling this monthly series Proverbs and Smiles.  If all goes well, maybe I’ll continue sharing beyond six months. In keeping with my own struggles since losing our girls, Summer and Malia, this month’s theme is “Keep Going.”

I hope these words move you or make you smile, too!

Once you choose hope, anything is possible. — Christopher Reeve

… don’t look back and don’t spend too much time worrying about the future. Stay in the present. There are a few ways to do that. Stop and smell the roses. Wake up and smell the coffee. Enjoy the sweet smell of success. I guess just keep taking big whiffs of stuff because it seems like the more we smell, the happier we are going to be. You know what I mean. — Ellen Degeneres, Seriously … I’m Kidding

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me. — Jesus Christ

Pay attention, don’t let life go by you. Fall in love with the back of your cereal box. — Jerry Seinfeld

Wherever and whenever miracles don’t happen, we have an opportunity to allow faith to take root in our souls, and it is precisely this faith that has the power to work the deepest miracle of all, the one that happens quietly inside our own hearts. — Ann Spangler, When You Need A Miracle

This last one doesn’t fit with the theme of the rest above, but I think it’s just hilarious.

Last night, I dreamt my flour sack was abducted and the kidnappers started sending me muffins in the mail. — Niles Crane on Frasier experimenting with fatherhood

Happy Friday all!