THE RETURN OF THE RAINS

Kalyra was born into a world where rocks and dust were the most prominent features. Her birth was hard, and she was left with a crooked foot that gave her a permanent limp. She was an observant, kind-hearted, artistic child. She spent a great deal of her childhood drawing on the cave walls imagining into reality the world of the Storytellers. From her birth, she rarely saw rain in her world. In fact, her people had adapted to a way of life that was attuned to the scarcity of water. They were a cave people. The underground spring that supported her family and the other cave-dwelling families was sacred and protected. That was even more true since the Big Dry Up had started when Kalyra was five. It hadn’t rained in so long that the people were completely dependent on their underground spring for all their water needs. A great deal of talk about staying in their ancestral caves or moving somewhere else had happened in community circles. These talks always ended abruptly when someone asked, “Where will we go?" Scouts had never returned with news of anything but more dust and rocks. And so, their life-routines continued, with the lack of rain weighing heavily on the minds, hearts, and spirits of all the people.

The people only ventured out of the caves at dusk when the coming night air had cooled the earth. They had become night farmers, hauling water from their cave’s spring to nourish their crops of corn and beans, trusting in the light of the stars. By the age of thirteen, Kalyra was in training as a seer and singer, and within a year, she had proved to be a talented novice, already rich in voice and having shared minor visions in community circle. The Shaman tested her and told the community she had great potential as a major seer/singer and thus accepted her as an advanced pupil, placing her in the care of the Storytellers, so that she would be well acquainted with the history of the people as preserved by the Storytellers. In this way she learned the deep knowledge about the history of her people.

When she was fifteen, the Big Dry Up began. That was the first year of no rain at all. She clung to the ancient tales passed down through generations of Storytellers of what her world was like before the rains stopped. The stories painted pictures of a lush world flowing with surface waters and great seas. Both lands and waters were teeming with life-forms. Then came the change foretold by past seers. These stories told of the rains lessening year by year, so she knew the rains didn’t stop overnight. These ancient stories told of parts of the world far away that were once covered in water that didn’t move called ice that had warmed and moved again and that for a while that resulted in seas rising. The stories also told of later days when the sea levels began to fall revealing barren landscapes, and times when rivers ceased flowing, and how over long stretches of time the precious surface waters supportive of life steadily disappeared leading to mass movements of people and the fall of civilizations and many, many deaths. Kalyra learned through the Storytellers that the waters remaining on the planet were sacred underground springs like the one of her own people. She learned how those who survived retreated from the surface guided by the stories that led them to access caves where water would be found. Her ancestors were such a people.

Salt flats, vast remnants of dried-up seas, were common by the time Kalyra was born. Deserts composed of rocks and dust made up the landscape. Only the most adaptive of life forms survived. Once the Big Dry Up started, it was astonishing how rapidly what became Kalyra’s world was transformed from lush to dust.

The first hint that some sort of change was coming was the day the people noticed the return of wispy clouds just above the horizon. The Shaman encouraged the people to return to practicing the ancient ways of calling to the Rain Gods for their blessing. These ways had been abandoned long ago by the people as futile, but the Shaman remembered the ritual and taught it to the people, who upon seeing the wisps of clouds felt a whisper of hope. The Storytellers fanned this whisper of hope and revived rituals of Spirit strengthening the hope stirred by the appearance of the faint clouds. As a young woman of child bearing age, Kalyra participated with the Shaman in the rituals. The Shaman recognized that she carried within her a strong life force which enhanced her contributions to the rituals to help the people.

One night in the community circle under the stars after the rituals had been practiced, Kalyra had a powerful vision fueled by her love for her people. She sang her vision like a seer would. The people rose and danced to her vision-song in the firelight all calling to the Rain Gods to come. Kalyra sang, but of course, could not dance. As the dancing intensified, Kalyra heard a voice commanding her to focus her song on the return of the rains. She obeyed and out of her came a vision-song that vibrated with each note and word. Oblivious to her actual surroundings, she was completely inside this vision-song. As she sang, she saw a new, lush, green world watered by rain. This vision fed the song. All the dancers joined in with her song like a chorus. This went on until streaks of dawn appeared on the horizon. The vision-song and the dancing ended. Exhausted and ecstatic simultaneously, all the people returned to the caves to sleep and dream filled with the Spirit of Hope.

           Kalyra awoke the next day well before sunrise. Stars still shone. She emerged from her cave like a butterfly from its cocoon. She raised her arms and sang the traditional morning welcome song. Starlight faded as she sang until dawn. She noticed the thin clouds had thickened and were now clumping together. She sat down on her morning rock and closed her eyes letting herself sink into the quanta state where thoughts took flight and Source dwelled. She waited breathing slowly in and out, focused on her love of her people and trusting the Source of All-That-Is to reveal what she needed to do to help them.

“Sing, Kalyra,” Source commanded. “Sing of rain.”

And thus, Kalyra sang of rain.

Pitter, patter

Trickling, spilling

Streamlets running

Lightning flashing

Storms a brewing

Thunder crashing

Fat drops bouncing

Waters dancing

Rippling, rippling

Flowing and entrancing

Feeding rivers

Life givers

Rushing, rushing

Healing, healing, healing…

           Her song bounced off the gathering heavy clouds. Kalyra kept singing. Repeating her song over and over. She felt the first raindrops like the blessing they were. Into her singing mouth raindrops fell. As she swallowed each one, she could feel every part of her body responding with joy. The rains were washing her clean inside and out. Her long brown hair was hanging loose and wonderfully wet. Tears of joy ran from her piercing green eyes mingling with the rain. The rains nourished and healed her, as well as the land around her. With the crescendo of a final note echoing across the land, she sat quietly, gratefully luxuriating in all the wetness. Hearing Kalyra’s song and the rain, the people poured out from their caves. They gathered together in the pouring rain around Kalyra’s rock. She sat vibrating with ecstatic serenity in the gift of the rain. 

The people were laughing and crying with joy, their tears and fears washing away with the coming of the rain. Children frolicked about in puddles. Kalyra stood. The Shaman joined her and nodded for her to speak. He held up his hand signaling silence.

The people obeyed and listened raptly as she spoke, “Let us give thanks to Source who sent the gift of the rain to us.”

They all joined Kalyra in singing the ancient song of gratitude to the Source of All-That-Is.

Kalrya so wanted to celebrate by dancing with the people that without even thinking, she took her first dance step, and suddenly realized that her foot had straightened and her limp had magically healed. The Shaman, the Storytellers, and the people all lifted their voices with grateful singing and danced with her as rain continued to fall on them unceasingly.

Kalyra lived, served, and loved her people as a singer/seer for nearly a hundred years. After many years of regular rainy seasons, she witnessed the dusty land become lush once again as her vision-song had once foretold.

The Storytellers all across the land recounted Klayra’s story, as it came to be known, about when the rains had returned. Her story is still told to remind the people of the gift of the Rain Gods brought forth by Kalyra’s love transmitted from Source to them through her vision and song.