Dancing Between the Raindrops: Transcending the growing pains of life with grace

Lisa is born into a transitional period in the history of her country, right at the tail end of a charged era. The characters within her small, nuclear family and a friend or two affect the topics of each essay in this short but punchy collection. An intimate portrait is painted of Lisa Braxton’s life as she navigates her way through the most difficult seasons of life, including her confrontation with the hurt caused by the ugliness of racial discrimination, reconciling the emotions that arise when one feels behind in life in comparison to their loved ones, and the unavoidable despair of watching your parents age in this honest, introspective book.

Spoiler-free Plot

Moving from Virginia to New England to escape the constant and overt racism in the South was not all it was promised to be. The Braxtons settled into a modest house within a predominantly white, suburban neighborhood which provides the setting for author Lisa’s shedding of her childhood innocence. Where the “otherness” of her skin color brought out the ghastly reminder of undeserved, unadulterated hatred lobbed at her and her family by their peers. Its existence impossible to ignore or erase, even with the government’s flimsy admonishment of its dark history codified into the country’s legislation. Sure, opportunities were more readily available, more diverse, and came with better working conditions, however, growth and expansion were limited due to the arbitrary fact of one’s race.

For a long time, the Braxton’s housing situation remained stagnant while their neighborhood lost its supposed former glory. Despite their will to move and their recognized success, their dream of relocating to a more attractive house is quashed by the rulings of an unjust world.

Both Braxton sisters move out of their family home to pursue the next chapter of their lives and are thrust into the challenges that come with their newly acquired independence. Friendships are made and lost to time. Romance is searched for high and low. Careers are nurtured into achievements to be proud of. Faith guides them from one season to the next with grace.

The inevitable happens; as Lisa herself grows older, so do her parents. While old age is an inescapable truth, no one person can be adequately prepared for everything that comes along with it, as Lisa comes to learn. Illness, uncertainty, loss and grieving. These themes, represented in multiple ways, are repeated throughout this essay collection. The story navigates the struggles of a loving, well adjusted family who continually find safety and comfort in each other, no matter what the world throws their way.

My Take on Dancing Between the Raindrops

I truly believe that very personal retellings serve as incredible palliatives or educational tools to counteract discrimination of any kind. As long as there is existing empathy in the receiving audience, stories, various types of media and art will be effective in informing people of the damage caused by their hurtful opinions and actions.

Dancing Between the Raindrops is raw and honest in its presentation of racism. Children from all walks of life are given blanket protected status as they are obviously a vulnerable group, therefore, the visceral feelings of hurt felt by a young Lisa Braxton were beyond enough to thaw out any frozen heart. The memories of discrimination she endured at such a young age are valuable in contextualizing the pervasiveness of racism. I applaud Ms Braxton’s bravery in so openly sharing these accounts with the world, and in turn contributing to a wider network of beneficial resources, purposefully or otherwise.

To expand on the author’s honesty, including all the gritty details concerning the care of elderly parents, each with their own illnesses while she herself battled cancer. Her bravery also extends into this aspect of the story as all the details are laid bare to us readers; details normalizing the very complex emotions someone in her position would face—relief over finally being unburdened by the responsibility of care, then the overwhelming guilt that follows, for example.

Some chapters act as a guide and would be a great referral to others who would need it. It couldn’t have been easy to talk about these things and she would’ve needed to tap into a deep well of strength whilst writing each essay, and then again when arranging them into this book.

Essay collections are not a storytelling format I have previously sought out, so this was my first foray into this type of literature. I must say that I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, after my mild apprehension was overcome.  Especially those on the more “experimental” side, like the use of the Parenting the Parent crossword to tether together the puzzle with real life examples of the motions she was going through with her own parents.

It was an interesting change of pace, switching from a regular piece of prose, to a news report, to a poem, to a job advertisement which was just about one of the cutest things I’ve ever read. Almost like gathering memories together into a patchwork quilt. I would say that maybe some consideration should be given to the order of the essays, if possible. I understand that they were previously published pieces so any overlapping information would be hard to edit out but perhaps a revision of the sequence of stories would allow for better flow from one chapter into the next.

Age Rating

13 years and above

Content Warning

Racism, Threats of violence, Dementia, Cancer, Suicide.

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