Misty Florida prairie landscape at dawn with silhouetted oak trees and grassland, representing the ancient basin ecosystem beneath Paynes Prairie

This is Part 1 of a three-part meditation on Florida prairies, sacred ground, and what it means to be a steward of the land. This week has been hard. The kind of hard that comes when people misunderstand you, when conflict arrives uninvited, when the noise of the world tries to convince you that you are something you're not. In the middle of the noise, we had to go to work. Had to smile. Had to pretend. Hope all things. Believe all things. Endure... all things. Wipe burning

"True resilience is knowing what to release-what to stop spending energy on-to survive the hard season. This is what fall on the farm teaches us."

"We're appealing. We believe we'll win because state law is on our side, because the constitution matters, because what we do isn't just legal - it's necessary."