Hello, butterfly and welcome to the forum! It's very nice to have you here and welcome to the path~ You may want to stop by the Introductions Section and give a little information about yourself for the other members to see!
I'll address your questions one by one (and I'll do my best to answer, everyone has different ideas and beliefs. I'm also not Wiccan but I'll share what I do!). (:
1) There are definitely things you can do before a meal! You could say a quick prayer, which my family used to when we followed Wicca while I was a child. It was something along the lines of 'From forests and streams, from mountain and fields, from Mother Earth's nourishing yield. I now partake in this divine energy, may it bring health, strength, and love to me. Blessed be." I'm not sure if that's how it went because it's been years since we used to say it, but it was something along those lines. You could even say a something quick and short like, "thank you Lord and Lady for this beautiful meal and invite you to join my company as I partake in it". There's many things you could do, and others might have a better suggestion for this than me. Haha.
2) Some cool ways to use rain water. Hmm... For starters, you could use it for cleansing just as you mentioned. It can definitely be used to cleanse gems and even that ring of yours! I actually just made a thread about cleansing and purifying items if you'd like to take a look right here:
cleansing-water-charms:
viewtopic.php?f=80&t=29301
You would want to cleanse the rainwater first and bless it (unless you feel it's better not to, it's up to you!) then use it for the cleansing of the ring.
I hope these help you!
