Thought #4: Picking Raspberries

We use to grow raspberries. In the early morning, before the sun hit the patch, I’d put on my walkman (pre iPod period), start up my book and go pick raspberries – oodles of them. If you’ve ever picked berries, you’ll know that you can look at a bush from one position and pick all the berries, thinking you got them all. But if you just shift your body position even a few degrees, you can find all sorts of berries that you missed from your last viewpoint – never fails.

I love applying my berry-picking perspective to creative endeavors. When I come up with a great idea, I find that if I flesh it out a bit and then let it simmer, it takes on more dimension. While it is simmering, I intentionally work at shifting my perspective so I can view the idea from lots of angles. I read books and magazines, sketch/doodle, talk to people who might have done something similar, google the idea and I keep a journal of my thoughts on the subject. Sometimes the process surpasses the initial endeavor and leads to an even better outcome.