I stumbled upon the Design Matters podcast late last year and am hooked. It's got an amazing archive that I'm slowly working my was through when out running or cycling.
The brilliant host and curator of stories Debbie Millman brings in guests from all fields to talk about their approach to work and life. Whether it is a Graphic Designer, Gardener, Journalist or Radio Producer there are always brilliant nuggests in there to get me thinking.
So I thought I'd start blogging some of those nuggets. Here's some from Gardener and Writer Margaret Roach:
On packing in her job and moving to the country...
"I crave solitude... I can literally go days without speaking to people. It's the most creative thing for me - silence and connection to nature."
On what she learnt from leaving a secure job...
"I'm a gardener first and foremost, I'm part of the food chain. I'm part of the cycle that's outside my window. I'm just one of the creatures and I love learning about where I fit in to that. For example have you ever stayed in a relationship too long, business or personal? Well I have. Birds don't do that. When it's time to migrate, when the signal comes, they fly away. They don't say 'I really like this tree. I think I'll stay here'. There's a lot of inspiration for me in the behaviour of animals."
On the value of taking time out..
"We tell children to take a 'time out' when they start screaming in a supermarket but we don't do that for ourselves. I think that silence and stillness are so undervalued in our contemporary lives. Plants have an active period then they have a dormant cycle. I have learnt to get up and go on some little adventure otherwise we will go crazy."
On powerlessness...
"In our careers if we succesd it's because we go go go and make things happen. It's about control (or the illusion of control). The mandate is 'control this', 'make this', 'here are the raw materials so turn this thing into this'. But there are forces bigger than ourselves at work. Go outside, go out to nature. Look at the North East (of the US) which has been under a lot of water this year. Not matter how good a gardener (they were) the people didn't get a harvest this year.It's bigger than them and this is the thing. We are just a speck. One part of a food chain, one part of a cycle. I like that. I like things being out of control. I like the failure. Because if I kept thinking that for the rest of my life I'd keep dominating then it would burn me out."
On striving for perfection...
"In a garden you can't struggle against the facts of life. It's OK to have some wrinkles."
On personal creativity...
"To stiffle your own personal creativity in a trade off for success, money or a promotion is tricky. You do run out of time so I'm aware that I do need to indulge myself every day with some of my hare-brained schemes... You really do need to make some time or the lid really will blow off"
On learning..
"You gotta grow it to know it."