Arnold Toynbee pointed out that societies gain access to new energies and new directions only after a ‘time of troubles’ initiates a process of disintegration where the old order comes apart. He showed how often the new orientation was made clear only after what he called a ‘withdrawal and return’ on the part of individuals or creative minorities within the society. The needed transformation, it seems takes place in an in-between state or outside the margin of ordinary life. That is so with individual lives as well: Things end , then you spend a time (or time out) in the neutral zone,  and then things begin anew. That is how life has always been and always will be. So make your time of transition a time of renewal and transformation. Come out of it stronger and better adapted to your world than you were when you went in.

– William Bridges from ‘ Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes’