sleepy, tired, poor

i've just finished a 3 day stint racing to finish our next teaching atlas. in the past 72 hours, i've slept 6.

(so...if you fall asleep while i'm preaching sunday, i will harm you...not because of insult, but because of envy)

anyways, while working away i was stymied a few times by lack of creativity. now, that's a little weird because creativity is usually sorta my thing.

but when you're tired
and pressed for time
and feeling a little anxiety

creativity tends to get a little shy

why then got me thinking about our extraordinary staff at westwinds - ben, lori, norma, angie, 3-headed-monstoriolis - and how pressed, tired, and anxious we've been since [a] first learning of randy's cancer, [b] having to lay off half our [previous] staff, and [c] learning [again] about randy's cancer.

coupled with the financial wormhole we've been in since 2004, it's no wonder that our staff is feeling sleepy, tired, and poor.

usually, when you have no money you can compensate by coming up with creative alternatives to the things you'd spend your money on if you had it. you can make cool art for your house instead of buying it, write your own stories instead of getting the latest bestseller, play outside instead of going to the movies etc.

usually, when you have no time to do everything you need to do you can compensate by coming up with creative solutions that allow you to do the most important, most invigorating things first without totally letting everything else suck.

usually, when you're in any kind of a bind the way out requires creativity.

our staff excels at creative solution-making, expression, relationship, and liturgy.

it's why i love them so much.

but...i can't help wondering how much longer we'll have to trade on ONLY our creativity before it runs out like the money, like the time, and like everything else.

if creativity is always our compensation package,
what happens when we deplete our resources for creativity?

this, by the way, is why we value creativity SO HIGHLY at westwinds
why we celebrate it
and why we look for staff to continue cultivating it

because, at the end of the day, it's the only thing we have to work with