Desert Flowers

What would life be like if we could thrive only for a few weeks each year?

If, for the rest of the year, we had to lie dormant in dryness and heat, exposed to wind and relentless rodents that assume everything that’s not rock or sand is edible?

 

We would do our best to make these few weeks count. All our prickly defenses would make place for a display of attraction.

 

The pictures here were taken early 2001 in the Joshua Tree National Park, at the peak of the wildflower season. All these plants are strangers to me, as I am a stranger to their home, the desert.

 

 

It was still good to be a guest, because even the most alien forms of life can teach us something.

 

Persistence, in this case.