“Research is formalised curiousity. It poking and prying with a purpose”– Zora Neale Hurston, Anthropologist

In my book I had written about ‘cultivated innocence’ or even ignorance.  When we get used to things, people or our environment, we stop looking with our creative selves.  We stop seeing with new eyes and instead of following our hearts, we follow our deep-seated prejudices and pre-judgements.  This morning I looked at my garden with new eyes and found so many things I had not seen before.  For example, I did not realise that bees came to my lavender plant at a certain time in the morning everyday.  I learnt to listen out for them and did try to photograph them but did not succeed- perhaps I did not how fast bees fly or how quickly they drink the nectar from flowers!  I discovered some tulips, some geraniums and some moss I had not seen before.  All this gave me great pleasure- all through seeing the same thing with the ‘eyes of innocence’.  Using the words of the poet, Wallace Stevens, we must “resist intelligence almost successfully” to follow our hearts.