Rituals

Below is the ritual created by our fabulous VP Foundations/Rituals, Robbie White which she performed with us at our September 22, 2020 meeting.

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Delta Gamma * OKC Alumni Meeting * Ritual of Perseverance

Please form a circle with a little distance between you.

For my Delta Gamma Sisters—the strongest women I know,
2020 has brought an endless sea of tragedy and loss, loss on a global scale.

It is sometimes difficult to wrap our minds around the number of individual lives we have lost and the changes happening at a dizzying pace. We, as a species, have in the span of a few months reshaped every aspect of human interaction across the globe, every aspect of our lives has been altered in subtle and
radical ways:
the way we procure food,
travel or not travel,
care for our children,
care for our elders,
educate our children and ourselves,
and so many other things.

Milestones come and go without proper recognition. Funerals. Graduations. Birthdays. And the little things like a baby’s first step. All gone virtual, empty of human warmth in these days of Covid. Coming up fast is the holiday season: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, New Year’s and quicky followed by Valentine’s Day. When will this virtual season end? How will we find our way to bring light to the long dark nights of winter without parties and traditional gatherings?

The normal things have slipped away.
We no longer share meals with friends and family in cozy restaurants
We no longer sit in theaters being inspired by live performances.
We no longer shake hands.
We no longer exchange hugs.
We no longer trust the air between us. Is six feet even enough?

We created our quarantine bubbles carefully including those with whom we cannot be without. Lovers. Children. Parents. Close Friends. Husbands. Wives.

But tonight, amidst this season of fear, we gather with our sisters on a perfect night under the open sky. I ask you to pause. (Pass the candle)

In the twilight, let this light be our warmth, our spark of hope, passed from one sister to another in honor of our bond.

Ponder the anchor which has long been a part of our sisterhood. Let us cling to the anchor in its timeless, steadfast strength in this, our hour of great and historic need. Let us focus on the continuity, the hope in a brighter day. Our precious anchor, our precious sisterhood. Both are symbols of hope.

An anchor lifted up from the water of a port, represents a new adventure, a new voyage.

Our sisterhood has been with us since we were young women embarking on all kinds of new exciting adventures.

We knew there would be hard times, but we could never have imagined living through a global pandemic during a year of great storms, of vast fires with smoke blanketing the continent, with social unrest, and economic uncertainty.

Let us pause to soak up this moment of friendship, of sisterhood, and of hope.

I look around this circle of strong women, passing the light of hope. You have marked the seasons and the milestones with your families in this era of Covid with creativity, persistence, zoom calls, and masks.

You have been stubbornly loving as you welcome adult children back home and gracious in returning to your family home.You have tested your abilities at work and in your communities. And you have prevailed.

You will continue to prevail.

You will create new traditions and mark this time with your tremendous sense of hope and grace, so much grace. And patience.

To paraphrase, Robert Brault, We will stubbornly persist, and we will find that the limits of our stubbornness go well
beyond the challenges of this virus.

---In the bonds,
Robbie Thomason White , Alpha Iota ’87

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“Stubbornly persist, and you will find that the limits of
your stubbornness go well beyond the stubbornness of
your limits.” -Robert Braul