Friday

"Ideas are fragile," says computer giant Apple's design guru, Jony Ive, interviewed on the BBC's Stephen Fry in America. Jony Ive moved to the US because he felt that his notions would be less likely to be carelessly trampled on out there. I don't feel the need to do that, but his words resonate with me. Ideas are indeed fragile, require nurturing, time to blossom. Another BBC programme, a drama, Eddington and Einstein, reminded me how long, and how much effort, it took for even this great scientist's ideas to be taken seriously.

It is wonderful, therefore, to meet someone who treats your ideas with care and respect. Sometime ago I was contacted by a fellow Lapidus member (Literary Arts for Personal Development, http://www.lapidus.org.uk/). She is a clinical psychologist and jointly runs a support group for women suffering from chronic pelvic pain. She suggested we put in a funding bid for me to run some creative writing workshops with the group and for her to evaluate them. This week we heard we'd been granted the funding and we met face to face for the first time.

It was invigorating to be with someone who shared a similar world view to me in terms of attitudes to mental well being, gender and writing - our discussions wandered off the matters in hand. And exciting to be collaborating on having the work that I do clinically evaluated. For me it was an important validation. I can already feel my ideas germinating with greater vigour and colour.