Vol. 2, Issue 10
Return to the Gift
Noonday Notes
Volume 2, Issue 10
August 14th, 2026
During Fallow July, or what I like to call the All-Star break, (because remember farming follows the baseball season whether I’m farming in NY or TX), I was able to rest, relax, and read. I traveled to a place and people that I hadn’t been to in 20 years. It was a bit of an odyssey, if you will, in a month. But like all pilgrimages, one must return. You can’t stay eating lotus in the mountains of North Carolina forever, although I did think about it, and my car was packed accordingly.
Sabbath, summer break, vacations, fallow, none of these last forever. We eventually have to return. It was my return to the soil when the floodgates of thoughts, feelings, and reflections for these notes began again. Not that the flow was off during my break, it was just tuned to other existential musings like womanhood, faith, and love…low-key stuff.
This realization came to me last Saturday when I got my hands in the soil by starting seeds (see above) and pulling Bermuda grass and moving mulch. The very things God has called me to do, which is to work and keep the garden so that I may be of service to others.
“Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.”
— Romans 12:6
You don’t have gifts so that you will just think about them, or admire them, or question why you have them. Nor is your gift evidence that you’re better than somebody else. Rather, it’s evidence that you're part of the Body and your gift helps us all. The source of those gifts is God’s grace. You have a gift, so you must use it.
Sometimes we rest or take a break to remember what we’ve been given. But then we return and we use it.
It’s important to go on a sabbatical, a break or pilgrimage. But the return is just as vital; so we can bring back the gifts we’ve learned on the journey, and return to the gifts we’ve been given.
Odysseus spent years wandering, but it was always to return home. He was always trying to get back to Ithaca. ‘Tis the season of returning, whether it’s to school or work or the soil. Or maybe you’re returning to the place where God’s called you. Maybe we’re returning to a relationship you thought was over. Maybe it’s a gift. Eventually, we’re all called back. We must return.
What are you returning to?