#UULent Day 35, March 31, 2020 (Day 17 of social isolation): Rain. As the grass crunches under my feet, I think about the relief the rain would bring to it. Honestly, I don’t love the rainy season. The constant damp tends to bring me down more than the constant dry. The constant damp annoys me in the ways it causes things to mold and rot. I often think that maybe I was supposed to live in the desert. But nevertheless, as the word today was rain, I wanted to lift it up with gratitude for the relief that it could bring to this hot, dry season here in Florida. I chose to think about it in terms of how it brings things to life. We need to see more life bursting around us right now as we try to process our grief for the suffering of this world.

And so, I thought about what else I needed to “rain” down on me in order to bring some relief and renewal to my life. My frustrations today included unmotivated teenagers, feelings of helplessness concerning this current state of affairs (I most definitely read too much news this morning), getting behind schedule (my newly self-imposed schedule), and not being able to walk across the street to visit my neighbor friend (he makes the BEST old fashioneds) and just chill out during this time when we really need each other the most. I need inspiration, support, grace– and the wisdom to know how to get through this– to rain down on me. I’m feeling a bit thirsty. I think maybe you know what I mean.

Then, towards the end of the night, when I felt like I had nothing to offer from this dry, parched state of being and I was slumped in my chair feeling defeated, I thought… rain dance.

As a student of anthropology, I’m familiar with rain dances in terms of community building. A rain dance wasn’t (isn’t) just performed to bring rain, a rain dance is a form of community prayer, of group cohesion, of acknowledgement of universal suffering and a need for relief and healing. It is ritual, cultural knowledge of the ways of life, and it embraces patterns- patterns of suffering and of hope to be found in the rhythms of footsteps, chants, colors, fabric, and movement.

What I need is a rain dance. What we all need is a rain dance. We need to come together, to be resilient. We need to create a way to be together that honors the sorrows we are experiencing, the joys that we can still find, and the hope that we will come out of this with the inspiration to move forward with a deeper love for humanity and the Earth. What sort of rain dance can we do that will remind us that life will bloom again? What sort of rain dance can we create that will bring us inspiration, support, grace, and wisdom so we know how to move forward in this new way of being?

It’s up to you, really. What new patterns can you create? Can you use sound, rhythm, color, texture, dance? What else? And then, it’s up to us. What will it look like when we can put all of our ideas, born out of love, together? Can we quench the thirst of this grieving land? Can we offer hope to those most deprived of the life-giving elements of freedom and love and justice? Can we make it rain? Yes, we can. We can help to form the future and the ways in which the Spirit of Life can offer itself to all living things.

And wouldn’t you know it. Just before 10 p.m. on this dry, dry night of March 31, 2020, it rained– if only for a very brief moment– but yet still, it rained.