TheBanyanTree: Rain Walk

[Russ Doden]

In this part of the country, it has been a dry spring and summer.  
Lakes have been low, and many farmers and gardeners are seeing 
poor returns for their efforts.  Where usually I am being buried under 
offerings of squash, tomatoes, zucchini, and other vegetables, I am 
getting very little this year because there isn't enough to share with 
friends - there isn't even enough in many cases for families to freeze 
or can for the rest of the year.  

Last night it rained here.  We have had so little rain and when it does 
come, it comes in torrents and most runs off.  The first wave of last 
nights rain came through about 4ish and was in full swing when I left 
the office.  I walked to the car from the office slowly, feeling the rain 
on my face.  A warm summer rain.  I needed to go to the grocery 
store and instead of crowding up close to the door as everyone else 
was doing I parked out in the middle of the lot and walked in - again 
slowly.  Those huddled under the small awning along the front of the 
store looked at me like I was a simpleton.  I don't blame them. I was 
walking in the rain, slowly, and smiling very big.  It felt so good to feel 
the rain.

That wave didn't last all that long but it was so welcome.  The 
weather said we may or may not have more in the evening but 
implied that we most likely had seen our rain.  Shows what they 
know.  I could feel more was coming.

The walk in the rain at the grocery store had put my head in a 
different place.  I found myself . . . expanding in some way I guess 
you could say.  Thinking of what my purpose is, which has been on 
my mind much the last 2 or 3 weeks anyhow.  Thinking of people 
that mean much to me.  Thinking of . . . connections.  Connections of 
all kinds.  

As the evening wore on, I continued with my thoughts and thought I 
heard distant thunder again.  I went outside and it was warm and 
humid.  I could feel rain coming so checked the TV.  Another wave 
was on the way!  I changed into a pair of shorts and a pull over shirt I 
had made, and pulled on my sandals and waited.  Soon it started to 
sprinkle.  I have learned that sometimes a sprinkle is all that we get 
so I set out on my walk.  The loop I walk around my condo complex 
isn't long, maybe only .8 mile, but it is a good loop.  At 9 p.m. there 
isn't hardly anyone out on a nice evening.  When it is sprinkling, 
everyone is inside.  As I set out, the sprinkles got a bit heavier, 
turning to a light rain.  It felt so wonderful to walk and feel the rain 
and just . . . absorb it.  

As I continued the walk the rain started to come down in a real rain 
storm.  By the time I was half way through my walk, and I was 
walking slowly, I was soaked to the skin.  As the walk continued, I 
thought of many things.  I thought of several summers ago, working 
with a fellow seeker at her medicine wheel, calling in the thunder 
beings and how it felt to work such medicine - having lightening 
strikes all around us, most between .25 and .5 miles away but some 
closer.  I thought of my many connections.  I asked for answers to 
what my purpose is, or at least for some signs I could understand.  I 
remembered once again something one of my teachers told me - 
that sometime I would be struck by lightening.  I don't know if she 
was speaking metaphorically, or literally.  I know that ever since 
working with the thunder beings, I welcome them.  I thought about 
what this may mean to me if it is a literal prediction.  I don't know 
which one I hope it will be - literal or metaphorical. 

It took me about 25 minutes to walk the loop.  Like I said, I was 
walking slowly, listening to the rain, hearing it in the trees, hearing it 
rush and gurgle over all the covered ground - ground that will not feel 
rain because of housing and pavement keeping it from ever again 
feeling rain.  By the time I got back to my condo, the rain was coming 
down very heavily.  I stood outside my door, hesitant to go in.  I 
stood there, in a puddle of flowing water on a sidewalk, feeling water 
flow around my feet, feeling water land on my body and flow off.  I 
felt clean and filled.  

When I went in, and peeled off my saturated clothes, I couldn't help 
but think that I had been given a great gift.  After drying off I sat in 
meditation for a while, feeling the memory of being washed by the 
rain.  Last night I remembered what it means to be in touch with 
nature and how disconnected we are most of the time.  

Russ