It was during the early months of Covid-19, and I was working as a chaplain at an outpatient oncology center in Atlanta Every time I walked up the stairs from the employee parking deck, I saw the symbols of Covid—a lonely mask, a single blue rubber glove. I imagined a tired and frustrated nurse at the end of his shift throwing off his mask, overwhelmed and overworked.  I wondered, how could this transitional space between work and home feel better? Someone suggested I email the head of facilities. I thought about it. I realized that what she did not need, in the middle of a pandemic, was an email complaining about overflowing trashcans. What could I do to be part of the solution? 

I had a vision of murals, bursting with color on the interior walls of the stairwell, with messages of hope to encourage and nourish the spirits of all of us—a ray of sunshine to welcome us to our day at work, and a rainbow of blessing as we head home. Stair-wellness! But how to make it happen? I called Midori Creativity and we were off and running!

We started with what I already knew and Midori worked from there and helped me flesh out the details, assigning dates to tasks. When can you commit to emailing the HR person? Write it down. When can you estimate mural painting costs for a pilot project? We also talked about blocks I had about whether I could pull this off. By the end of 45 minutes I had a recipe. And the incredible thing is that 8 months later, the murals are painted and they are beautiful!

What Midori does so well in a very short amount of time is focus on the practical along with the conceptual and inspirational. Then she attaches it to concrete realities — due dates, timelines, and dollar amounts. That kind of clarity then becomes an actionable blue-print. My first contact in HR/Wellness was resoundingly supportive and put me in touch with the next person who could be a decision-maker who sent an email saying, “we LOVE this idea! When can you meet?” The VP of mission integration thought bigger than me, saying, “And once we get that one done, we can do it in all the parking decks!” 

It was so deeply satisfying to me to take a creative vision I had and walk it through to completion. And I was able to do that, in large part thanks to one highly-productive consult with Midori Creativity.