pulling rabbits

I haven't been around much this week and I feel it. I miss you. But I was busy working on something, a long shot of great importance. A crusade of sorts.

As are so many non profits we encounter difficulties paying for all of the critical services we provide. It's been a long haul the last few months figuring out what to do, what we can do, what we cannot. None of these are easy decisions; the agony wakes me up at night and ruins my dreams. It feels heavy and complicated. I often want to hide.

But this week we managed to make something work. Long nights at city meetings had us pleading our case with clients in tow who in turn most magnificently gave a face and a voice to our words, the weight of these decisions resting squarely on their heads. Messaging and strategy. Thinky things were said. Public speaking in front of important people and a packed room full of observers with multiple agendas and priorities, certainly not all of them ours.

But we stood up. We pled and shared and tugged at hardened hearts. We fought the good fight, and the homeless gods were smiling. As a result we are able to negotiate the funding we need to keep over 100 people housed that we were almost unable to do last week, and was certainly impossible next week. And now, sweet friends, we can keep them housed for the entire year.

I am exhausted. And while we haven't sorted everything out, we were victorious this week for these 100 brothers and sisters who would have otherwise found sleep under bridges and in parks and streets. But we scared off that darkness, and while nothing comes for free and certainly in not this sort of battle we know it is right. Anytime something this renegade is pulled off there is a later price to pay, but I'll pay it gladly, because sometimes those rabbits claw their way out of the hat, but the scratches can't take away from the soft fluffiness you get to hold in your hand.