Rain-makers are popular among the Igbo ethnic group in the eastern part of Nigeria. Some call them the owners of the land, others dub them the gods. Whenever an event is about to hold, after meeting key obligations, the elders would ask the initiator, “have you settled the rain makers or appease the gods?” Doing this means making some financial donations to some key personalities in the community. Failure to comply attracts the wrath of the gods. It comes in the form of torrential rain, usually at the peak of the event, irrespective of the season. The rain is meant to bring the event to its knees. On this premise, the community members would rather toe the line of appeasing the gods than invite calamity on the d-day.
The rain making narrative teaches lots of lessons in life. In Africa, most communities farm only during the rainy season, which renders a good number of youths almost jobless throughout the dry season. This limits productivity, and the fallout is low income, poverty and misery.
In developed countries on the other hand, Agricultural productivity does not necessarily depend on rainfall; there are dams for irrigation and other schemes that enhance all-season farming, thereby increasing productivity, jobs and income. They are able to make their rains or create their rain regardless of the season. Many a young man out there needs to learn from this.
In the same vein, if you are threatened by drought; poverty, disappointments, misery, wretchedness, and the likes, then it is perhaps a call to “make your rain”; wake a bit earlier, sleep a bit late, study/read more, give more, be more disciplined, take more risk, and the likes. This is how to make your rains.
Just yesterday, I was about to valet the car when the cloud suddenly gathered. I was tempted to postpone the duty but I was determined that the task would not overlap into another, hence spent the next one hour to perform the task. No sooner had I completed the assignment than the rain began. I had made the ‘rains’ here. Sometimes, before stepping out for walkout, the threat of rain may be so ominous as to prohibit the move. More often than not, I had damned the consequences by stepping out and returning back after an hour or so before the rains poured. Other times, the cloud dispels with every little step. I have created my ‘rains’ in same manner in many instances.
You too can do same; persevere, go for it again, try once more, wake from your slumber, think deep, go the extra mile and stretch further. Indeed, these are surer ways to avoid ‘drought’ in your life!
