Metaphors for Creativity

I walked to work in the rain this morning, and the water seemed to let my mind wander more than usual. Like thinking in the shower, which is where I get some of my best ideas.

I used to be involved with someone who didn't speak much English and as I'm far from fluent in Japanese I often used metaphors and stories to explain to him how I felt. "When you do that, I feel like a little lost kitten, out in the street looking for scraps," and things like that.

So I was trying to work out where my creativity has gone and I think that it's been hard to work out because I don't really have a clear idea of what my creativity is. This morning I came up with a few possibilities but I still need some rain-thinking to get an answer!

Creativity is:
a muscle- it needs to be excercised and mine is weak like my arms!
a bottled potion and I've poured all mine out
a wave and right now the tide's out
borrowed and lent but right now there's no-one lending
a virus but I need to catch it first
a part of me still but I seem to have misplaced it, or put it in a drawer.
what the ninja under my sink feeds off so he can dirty up my place when I'm not looking...

Unfortunately the weather cleared up so I'll have to wait until we get some more rain...fingers crossed!