My wife, Keri, and I have started watching a TED talk (www.ted.com) each night before we go to bed. It's taking the place of time that we would normally have spent watching an episode from an entertaining TV series, and while I think there is probably a balanced to be established between watching stimulating TED talks and pop-TV series (there's nothing wrong with zoning out for an hour after a long day's work), i'm really enjoying the ritual of including at least one TED talk into my daily schedule.

The fact that my wife and I are watching these talks together adds another dimension to the experience: shared learning with the person who i'm incentivised most to grow and learn with. We've only been doing this for a few weeks, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the discussions that come out of these talks. It's giving us a tool to deepen our relationship by learning together.

*Edit since I first published this blog post*: Georgie Eadie, a friend and colleague, forwarded this list of the top TED talks by levels of engagement. It's a great starting point for anyone wanting to dig into the good stuff immediately! Here's the link.

Last night we watched Elizabeth Gilbert talk about our elusive creative genius. She shares the idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. I particularly liked her description of a 90-year-old poet's view of how she had to "grab her creative inspiration" when it came her way, as if creative inspiration is separate from, and frequently available to all of us.

It's an inspring talk, and i've included it below: