On a Wild Tangent (with Wild Roses)

By Tom LeNoble

We’re on a wild tangent.

And I don’t say that like it’s a bad thing.

Life doesn’t always follow the plan, the path, or the polished pitch deck. Sometimes it takes a hard left with no map, no warning, and suddenly we’re off-road in unfamiliar terrain. It’s wild. It’s messy. And it’s blooming.

I saw a patch of wild roses the other day. Not the kind you’d find in a curated garden, neatly trimmed and lined up like little floral soldiers. These were rebellious. Sprawling across the roadside, twisting through unexpected places with absolutely no regard for order.

They were stunning.

And they reminded me of us.

Because most of the time, we’re not living inside the carefully cultivated version of our story. We’re out there on a tangent—chasing dreams that shift, navigating curveballs that weren’t on the itinerary, and trying to make meaning out of chaos.

Here’s what I’ve learned:
Not all tangents are distractions. Some are divine.
Some detours are how we discover our resilience.
Some wrong turns are how we meet the right people.
And some wild roses, thorny and untamed as they may be, show us beauty we would never have seen from the main road.

Of course, not every tangent feels poetic. Some are hard. Some are brutal. Some come with loss or failure or just the ache of not knowing what comes next. But even then, we are growing roots. We are finding grit. We are becoming.

So if you’re on a wild tangent right now, I invite you to pause. Look around.

Maybe you’re not lost. Maybe you’re just blooming in a place no one expected.

Like the roses.

Off-script. On purpose.
Still beautiful.

— Tom LeNoble