Noonday Notes

Issue No. 38

March 13th, 2026

On Wednesday I had this reflection section written. Riffing on how hearts, like seeds, grow on their own timetable. No amount of pressure can force what isn’t ready. Blah blah blah. But then the wind came in and blew it all away. Couldn’t resist. Also…the wind knocked over an umbrella on my deck. Which normally wouldn’t be a big deal. But when it fell, it snapped a small plastic piece at the hose bib, which meant the water ran all night long (all night).

Sometimes life moves like that too. People blow into your life unexpectedly. Others move on. Who you thought you were can change. You have plans, they shift. You start the week thinking you know where things are headed, and by the end of it you realize how little control you actually had and that things that aren’t flexible break, so you roll with it.

Farming has a way of reminding me of resilience in the face of the winds of life. After the umbrella fiasco I was at the Grace Farm and saw how the broccoli was leaning over almost to a full 90 degree angle (see picture above). Not broken, just bent.

Plants know things we tend to forget. They don’t control the wind. They don’t resist every gust. They respond to it. They bend. They adapt. They stay rooted. And most of the time, a day or two later, they stand back up again and keep growing.

Looking at that broccoli got me thinking about last Sunday when helping with the 3 and 4 year old classroom at church where the scripture we were in was Matthew 7:24–25 “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”

The wind still comes. It still pushes life around. It still reminds us we’re not in control. But our foundations matter.

Read the rest of the newsletter here.