Revealed: The Story of Rain and Truth
- Matthew L. Brown
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
When the Rain Reveals What We’ve Avoided
There is something both comforting and unsettling about rain. It falls without discrimination; on rooftops and rivers, on dry ground and drowning ground, on seeds that will grow and systems that are already overwhelmed. April showers are often romanticized as the prelude to blooming, but before anything blossoms, something is exposed.
Rain doesn’t just water. It reveals.
It shows where the soil is healthy enough to absorb. It uncovers where the ground is hardened and resistant. It exposes where there is already too much, where additional water becomes not nourishment, but pressure.
And if we’re honest, the first quarter of this year has been a lot like that!! At least for me.
For those of us walking through the work of alignment; especially within our Align For What’s Next Group, the past few months have not just been about progress. They’ve been about exposure. Relationships tested. Projects stretched. Personal development challenged. Some areas of our lives absorbed the rain and responded with growth. Others flooded. And still others remained strangely untouched, revealing neglect we didn’t want to name.
The question is not whether it rained.
The question is: what did it reveal about where you are?
The Universality of Rain and the Specificity of Impact
Rain falls everywhere, but it does not affect everywhere the same.
There are under-water spaces and places already saturated. In our lives, these might be commitments we’ve overextended, relationships we’ve poured into without replenishment, or responsibilities that have long exceeded our capacity. When the rain comes here, it doesn’t help, it overwhelms.
There are over-water spaces and some areas where we’ve learned to float, to navigate, to sustain. These are our strengths, our disciplines, our well-developed systems. Rain here might even expand our reach, deepen our clarity, strengthen our rhythm.
And then there are the “not-watered” areas, the neglected ground. The dreams deferred. The conversations avoided. The parts of ourselves we have not intentionally nurtured. Rain may pass over these spaces entirely, not because they are undeserving, but because we’ve not positioned them to receive.
This is the paradox of growth: exposure is not evenly experienced, but it is universally offered. I just stopped as I wrote this. Maybe a pause goes right here.
Alignment Is Not Automatic
One of the most important realizations I’ve had, and continue to have as both facilitator and participant in this work; is that alignment is not a static state. It is an ongoing adjustment.
We often assume that if we are doing “good work,” we must be aligned. But good work can still be misaligned work. Productive work can still be draining work. Beneficial work can still leave us depleted.
And this brings us to a difficult but necessary tension:
What does it mean to be beneficial to others while not fully benefiting from what you provide?
This is not just a philosophical question. It’s a lived experience for many.
We give. We lead. We support. We create value. And yet, if we pause long enough, we may notice that the systems we are sustaining are not always sustaining us.
This is where the rain becomes exposure.
Because April does not ask whether you are useful. It asks whether you are aligned?
Learning to Stop While Still Moving
Recently, I’ve been reading Stopping: How to Be Still When You Have To Keep Going, written by a Roman Catholic priest who is also a therapist. His work challenges a deeply ingrained assumption many of us carry: that forward motion must always look like acceleration.
He suggests otherwise.
He explores the discipline of stopping, not quitting, not abandoning, but pausing with intention even while life continues to demand movement.
One of his insights, paraphrased, has stayed with me:
“Walking on a pile of rocks is different than climbing a mountain of ‘too much.’ The danger is we often don’t realize when the pile has become a mountain.”
That is exposure.
Because what started as manageable—one commitment, one responsibility, one opportunity, gradually accumulates. And without awareness, without stopping, without recalibrating, we wake up not on uneven ground, but on a mountain we never consciously chose to climb.
April’s rain reveals the mountain.
May invites us to decide what to do about it.
The Discipline of Tracking Your Growth Season
April is not just a month. It is the beginning of a growing season.
And growth, if it is to be meaningful, must be tracked.
Too often we move through seasons without reflection, assuming that time itself guarantees transformation. But time does not transform, attention does.
Thought leaders like James Clear (on habits) and Brené Brown (on vulnerability and courage) consistently emphasize the importance of awareness. You cannot change what you do not track. You cannot align what you do not acknowledge.
So as we transition from April to May, the invitation is not simply to hope for blooms.
It is to examine what has been exposed.
Three Simple Strategies to Assess What April Revealed
1. Conduct an Honest Saturation CheckWhere in your life are you over-watered?
Look at your calendar. Your emotional bandwidth. Your energy levels. Identify the spaces where “more” has become “too much.” Ask yourself: Is this still life-giving, or has it become life-draining?
Over-saturation is often disguised as responsibility. But alignment requires discernment.
2. Identify Your Neglected GroundWhat has not been watered at all?
Is it your personal development? Your health? Your creativity? Your inner life? Often, the areas that feel “fine” are simply untouched. Growth requires intentional watering.
Ask: What have I avoided nurturing? Why?
3. Recalibrate Your FlowWhere do you need to redirect the water?
Not everything needs more effort; some things need different strategy. This is where stopping becomes powerful. Not stopping everything, but stopping long enough to choose how you move forward.
Ask: What needs to change about how I’m doing what I’m doing?
Watering Yourself Without Harm
There is a quiet guilt many people carry when they begin to prioritize themselves.
As if tending to their own needs somehow takes away from others.
But consider this: the earth itself holds more water than land. There is abundance in the system. The issue is not scarcity, it is distribution. We’ll discuss the scarcity mindset next month.
You are not called to drain yourself in order to sustain others.
You are called to be a vessel that is continually filled.
There is enough for you to water yourself without harm to others.
In fact, when you are properly watered, what you offer others becomes more sustainable, more authentic, and more impactful.
A Sobering Reminder
The Apostle Paul offers a striking reflection:
“…lest while preaching to others, I myself should become a castaway.” (1 Corinthians 9:27)
This is not a statement of fear, it is a statement of awareness!
It is entirely possible to guide others effectively while neglecting your own alignment.
To speak truth without embodying it.
To produce outcomes without experiencing transformation! Ontology suggests that’s our “racket” (destructive behavior which provides an emotional payoff!)
April exposes that possibility.
May gives us the opportunity to respond.
Moving Forward, Together
As I write this, I am not standing outside this work. I am in it.
I am examining my own saturation points. My neglected ground. My strategies of movement. I am asking the same questions I am inviting you to ask.
Because alignment is not a destination we reach, it is a practice we commit to.
And this is why the Align For What’s Next Group exists.
Not as a space for perfection, but as a space for honest assessment. For shared growth. For intentional recalibration. For learning how to be both beneficial and sustained.
So here is the question I’ll leave you with:
What did April expose about you, and what will you do with that knowledge in May?
If that question unsettles you even slightly, that’s a good sign.
It means something has been revealed.
And perhaps it’s time to step into a space where you don’t have to process it alone.
If you’re ready to explore what alignment looks like for you in this next season, consider joining us in May.
Not because you have it all figured out.
But because you’re willing to pay attention to what the rain has shown you. 😊
Looking for guidance and a support system this season of your life?
Tap in below and take your next best moves.
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If there was ever a time to build the best version of yourself - it's now.
-Matthew L. Brown
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