““But no life was without it's strain & strife, not if it was fully lived. Opening up to experience, even the good ones like trust & love, was to open yourself up to the pain. I suppose the key was to not compound matters by making the rest of it unnecessarily hard. My need for control had certainly done that in the past. So I made a promise to myself in that moment. I would make a concerted effort to reach for what was soft & good in this world. I'd find a place to settle into, and hold still so that this world's good and soft could reach back & touch me as well.””
![“Success, she [Evie] claimed, made people want to trust you.” quote by Vicki Pettersson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/334/vicki-pettersson-10826_quote_success-she-evie-claimed-made-people-wan_44223.jpg)
