Jan Phillips

What we need to know, we already know. It is not more knowledge that is needed, but more careful listening, more dreaming, more daring.

Quotations distill ideas down to their essence.

No matter how brilliant our attempts to inform, it is our ability to inspire that will turn the tides.

Intimacy does not occur by default. It has to be intended, worked at.

Let us not wait for the heroic, conspicuous gestures, but rather look more carefully for those small, daily kindnesses, those rituals of bonding and sharing that show us as people revering life, revering each other.

Committing to our creativity is an act of faith, a promise that we will keep at it despite our fears and failings and despite whatever obstacles we find in our paths.

In the creative process, we are called to co-create with the thing that wants birthing. We must listen, open ourselves, summon courage, commit ourselves to the task, and begin. And this is the hardest part: in the face of nothing, we must begin. Not waiting for the sentence to be fully formed before writing the first word. Not waiting for the completed image to manifest in our minds before approaching the canvas.

Be creative with every moment.

What we need to know, we already know. It is not more knowledge that is needed, but more careful listening, more dreaming, more daring.