Noonday Notes

Issue No. 37

March 6th, 2026

This week I’ve been thinking about how farming lets you try again. There aren’t many places in life where you get to return to the same thing and have a do over. Not a repeat or a sequel, rather an informed return.

Sports teams have different players each season. I suppose it’s like that. Some MVP crops are back, some went to the minors. Winter squash and cauliflower, you take too long in Texas heat. Have fun in the AAAs.

It’s a new season. I’m not repeating. I’m returning. I walk onto the same field, but I’m not the same as last season. It doesn’t mean last season didn’t happen. It just means we get to plant again, but with new information and knowledge.

Returning assumes history. It assumes you’ve been somewhere, learned something, maybe even failed. But you come back carrying wisdom.

I love farming because it refuses to let life feel like a straight march toward an end. It insists on cycles. It begs you to return. To keep learning. This season isn’t a do-over. It’s redemption through return. Formation through farming.

Formation requires return. Spiritual formation doesn’t happen with one fast, one prayer, one morning in scripture. So too with farming. You must return if you want to learn.

The seasons of farming and life will form you. Spring may teach. Summer may reward. Fall may expose. Winter may quiet.

In the Big Book for AA it says, “We will not regret the past, nor wish to shut the door on it.” Farming understands that. Last season’s flops and mistakes were lessons. They formed me. We don’t get to erase things, but we may get to return. Look at me, I sold my 25 acre farm 13 years ago and here I am growing food in my front yard.

We are all being formed. Not by manifesting. Not by constant reinvention. But by faithful return. You plant again. You pray again. You forgive again.

Another season is here. The question isn’t whether you get a repeat. You won’t. The question is: who are you being formed into through your returning?

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