Author: Michael Stevens

Wildflowers are always new. Every season they vary in form, color, and proliferation. People ask why I go to the same place every year to see the same flowers blooming. I just say, “they...

…when your heart’s on fire You must realize smoke gets in your eyes These lyrics from the song, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, made famous in a recording by The Platters in 1958, reminds...

I recently watched a movie about Michael J. Fox and his journey with Parkinson’s Disease. Fox describes his experience with the tremors and inability to become still. He realized this was the theme of...

Today the sun is unencumbered by clouds and the spacious sky is the color of blue flax from horizon to horizon. Winds are barely perceptible but for a few exhales urging sparse foliage into...

We are studying A Dakini’s Counsel by Sera Khandro Dewai Dorje during our Wednesday evening practices. This is a rarity in the dharma book realm. Sera Khandro was a rarity herself having left home...

We created a small native plant garden in the side yard of our home. It is a wonderful expression of how desert plants require very little to survive. The plants do not like too...

He is 96 years old and he moves uneasily in halting steps at the edge of a field of wildflowers. We meet him at Big Summit Prairie during one of our pilgrimages to a...

I almost do not want to drink this cup of perfectly prepared matcha tea with oat milk. It was lovingly created by one of the baristas, a woman I count among my cafe friends....

I am traveling into the sun toward the Dharma Center and notice a streak of light in the distance. It is the sun’s reflection on the snowfields high on the Three Sisters mountains. I...

On our second trip to the Painted Hills this year we are witness to another botanical miracle. The golden bee plant (Cleome platycarpa) and John Day chaenactis (Chaenactis nevii) are experiencing a super bloom....