Part One: Inspiration for The Place Between

I am a quote junkie. I don't know what it is about words but I've always been fond of them. The following are quotes and letters people sent me while I gathered strength, hope, and courage:

You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you.

Mary Tyler Moore

From someone who has been there before, I probably know a little of what you're going through. And I know it literally feels like hell. I'm sure there have been lots of tears, and there will be more to come--believe me. At random times, too. BUT, it gets better. A lot better. It will take some time, but I think you'll find that once you reach a certain point, each day is better than the next and you'll emerge a new person. So hang in there.

Ryan

It's not so much that we're afraid to change or so in love with the old ways, but it's that place in between that we fear. It's like being in between trapezes. It's Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There's nothing to hold on to."

Marilyn Fergeson

Sorrows are our best educators. A person can see further through a tear than a telescope. If you train yourself to rejoice in suffering, if you think that everything is done by God for one's own betterment and uplift, if you welcome pain as a messenger of God to make you remember Him...then pain will not be pain anymore.

Sivanda

The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.

Abraham Lincoln

Ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in how own hands and prepared for you; and ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along... I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left... and mine angels shall be round about you, to bear you up... The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.

Doctrine & Covenants 78:17-18, 84:88, 78:18

People who pray for miracles usually don't get miracles any more than children who pray for bicycles, good grades, or boyfriends get them as a result of praying. But people who pray for courage, for strength to bear the unbearable, for the grace to remember what they have left instead of what they have lost, very often find their prayers answered. They discover that they have more strength, more courage than they ever knew themselves to have.

Rabbi Harold S. Kushner

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

Ralph Waldo Emerson