Jean Cole

“This is how we are: we fall in love with each other’s strengths, but love deepens towards permanence when we fall in love with each other’s weaknesses.”
― Salman Rushdie, The Golden House

“Dear God, she thought, help me to accept as Christ accepted. Keep my mind on helping, not judging. And remind me to put in a five-mile run this evening.”
― Julia Spencer-Fleming, In the Bleak Midwinter

“I believe that prayer focuses our human thoughts and energies, sends them to the people we're praying for. I believe that helps, in ways we can't yet understand. I believe that God hears our prayers, and cherishes them. I believe He answers by sending us His spirit, giving us strength, and peace, and insight. I don't think he responds by turning away bullets and curing cancer. Though sometimes that happens.”
― Julia Spencer-Fleming, In the Bleak Midwinter

“We must see God not as a Him (some linear rewarding fellow) but an IT, a great beast beyond our understanding, who wants something from us, and we must give it, and all we may control is the spirit in which we give it and the ultimate end which the giving serves.”
― George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo