Before the pines.
Before the oaks.
Before the redwoods stretched their arms to the sky…these stood.
Horsetail—green spear of the earth. A living fossil, carrying the memory of a world long buried.
Dinosaurs fed and fell, ice swallowed the land, oceans retreated and surged—and still, these segmented sentinels kept their vigil.
They are not flashy.
They are not loud.
They are patient.
They are close to permanent.
In their silence is the truth: What endures is not always what conquers, but what bends, adapts, and refuses to vanish.
Brother, learn from them.
Grow your strength ring by ring.
Root yourself deep.
Weather the ages.
One day, when all else crumbles, may you too be counted among the survivors.