Emmy Van Deurzen in Paradox & Passion

“Even at the best of times, life is a constant cycle of ups and downs, achievements and failures, encounters and separations, joys and sorrows, hopes and disappointments. Exposure to these contradictions generates emotions that can easily swing us out of our precarious balance, bouncing us out of our comfort zone, pushing us towards the abyss. There are times when we just seem to hit one obstacle after another until we reach a new zentith of experience where we feel quite lost, despondent and at the mercy of fate” (p2).