“All good things happen to he who waits.”

Proverbs by nature are ironic in the way that they can be true and untrue at the same time, and it’s almost always useless when you’re looking for answers.  It’s funny in a life-is-twisted kind of way.

Time goes by fast, but you can feel the earth slowly churning when you’ve been grounded for two weeks for getting a C in math. Blink, and you’ve been thrown into the unemployment sector and each jobless day feels like the lifespan of a coral reef.  Blink, 10 years working a job you hate and dullness is like a wormhole trying to suck you into eternal tick tocks. Blink, and it’s all over—that’s the fear isn’t it? As my mother always says, life goes by fast and slows down just long enough to feel the effects of your failures. So time is more like a Yo-yo, and as it goes up and down all one can do is try not to choke.

Yes I know, all too gloomy. I swear I’m not attempting a life-is-dark-and-depressing buzz kill. If you’re not being bitch slapped with news on our bad economy and how our world has become so dismal that all we want to watch are tales about emotionally tortured vampires, then you’re living in a bubblegum wrap under a fifth grader’s bed.  So no, I’m not trying to force feed you a heaping spoon of glum. There’s no doubt that we are living in difficult times, but as the world keeps on spinning so must we, and we as well do it with a smile.

So ladies and gentlemen my aim is to offer inspiration by means of proverbs, quotes and advice that’s been passed down for centuries, words of wisdom that’s flowed out of the likes of Opera, Aristotle and our grandparents, and those lines that we make up on the spot when there’s a friend using our shoulders as a human tissue for their tears and snot.  Often times we hear the advice, we nod our heads and it might even make us feel better for a while, but how often do we really apply these changes to our lives?

One of my favorite quotes is by W. H. Murray in The Scottish Himalaya Expedition: “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!’

I recite it daily, but do I practice it? Am I bold? I’m without a doubt a dreamer, but am I committed? Well, regardless of whether or not I’ve been exemplary of the quote in the past, I want to be so now and I invite you to join me. Each week I will pick a new quote for us to apply to our lives, and I will report back with my findings. I’d also like to hear from you readers, tell me how the latest quote has impacted your life and I will post it on the blog. In a time of superfluous focus on the bad and an emphasis on individualism, I offer something new. Let’s help each other, let’s work together in order to make life more than just surviving. Let’s make life as exciting and adventurous as we dreamt it would be when we were too young to know better. Let’s be bold. I’m sure that we will find the some advice works better than others, but together we can work towards unlocking the secret to everlasting happiness.