Rain, Rain, Rain

You might be due a purge.

It’s raining as I write this. The type you’d describe as cats and dogs. I love when it rains…as long as I’m not outside my house getting caught between honking cars, drenched to the bone. As long as I don’t have to worry about my foot landing in a slime. All things being equal, I love rain.

I mean, think about it for a second. The idea of multiple strings of liquid snaking all the way  down from the sky just to water the earth is definitely enchanting. I like the purity rain brings. Even nature understands the need for purging…routinely. The need for cleansing.

Photo credit: Pinterest

When I was a child growing up in a small town in eastern Nigeria, I would run outside with my brother and soak in the rain once the sky hit the go button on those torrents. (This happened when my parents weren’t around. My mother worried too much about us catching a cold to let us step out in the rain, and my dad was too strict to state his reasons for keeping us away from those showers.) We would run and dance. Jump and jiggle. It was fun.

Now that I’m an adult (wait, what? I’m an adult? Wow!), I enjoy the rain but only from the coziness of my sheets. An awful day for me would be one in which I’m trapped outside by rain, but you already know that by now. Each time it rains now, I’m overpowered by nostalgia. I’m transported happily on the wings of memory to the world of my childhood. How most of the things I so much wanted to do, like play in the rain, I had to do secretly. And now that I don’t have to be clandestine about them, I find myself tilting toward abstinence. Life is funny like that. I can’t even imagine jumping in the rain now. Just hearing the pitter-patter of the cleansing ritual on my roof is adequately satisfying.

Just the other day, I was having a conversation with one of my friends who recently became a mom (she’s mother to the most adorable baby girl, by the way). She was joking about being tempted to eat her baby’s food because feeding a toddler equals a 30-minute gym session. We laughed about it and then reminded ourselves that we were probably like that too. When the chat ended, I chuckled at the thought of someone chasing me around with my favorite food. Wow! How thankful would I be? Especially in this “unprecedented time” type of economy.

Life is in stages. This is your invitation to fully step into this season of your life. Feel your life. Savor it. Let the fear, the confusion, and the unpredictability of it all move your heart with excitement. You will never have this time back again. Never! Imagine letting worry rob you of the magic of this moment. Imagine letting it rob you of the purity of the joy that is obtainable now. A tragedy! Soak in the rain if that’s where the joy is for you. Call a friend. Read a book. Take a walk. Do anything but worry. Time is money, and any of it spent on worry is wasted currency.

You see that new level you’re so eager to step into? It has its own mud too. It’s not all sunsets and wine glasses. Since I learned this, I’ve been committed to enjoying the now. Like, committed to consuming it like a thief. My 8-year-old self would have sworn that giggling under the rain would always be the thing for me. Yet, here we are. And that’s okay because life is in seasons. Talking to my loved ones does it for me now. The high is the same, and I’m content.

One more thing about the rain. It cleanses. I’ve said it before, but I have to repeat it until it sinks in. Be like the rain.  Once in every while, come down in torrents and rid your life of everything that no longer belongs in it. Purge it of things that are only taking up space without yielding returns. Just like rinsing dust off car windows and sun-soaked rooftops, a purge is essential.

I pray that you’re discerning enough in this season to know what’s ready to be released. I also pray you’re brave enough to press delete in the name of Jesus, Amen.

With loads and loads of love,

Odinakachi Nwonu.