steph

“Survival, true survival of the body and soul, requires creativity, freedom of thought, collaboration. You might have time and I might have land. You might have ideas and I might have strength. You might have a tomato and I might have a knife. We need each other. We need to say: I honor the things that you respect and I value the things you cherish. I am not better than you. You are not better than me.”
― Clemantine Wamariya, The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After

“My heart isn't breaking because I can't have you."

"Don't say that. I saw the way you were looking at me just now. We can quibble over the precise words to use. But don't tell me I haven't hurt you."

"My heart's not breaking because I can't have you," he insisted. "It's breaking because you think you're a hard thing, because you imagine that what I see in you is an illusion. It isn't.”
― Courtney Milan, The Countess Conspiracy

“In this cynical world, isn't there something wonderful about the pure, unbridled optimism of marriage? To stand up and say, 'Screw the odds, I'm pinning my colors to the mast, bright and bold,' because if you're going to commit to anything in this life, shouldn't it be love?”
― Sophie Cousens, Before I Do

“believe that God protects me from nothing but sustains me in everything.”
― Gregory Boyle, Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship