About Michael Lee

Finding the Quiet Center of Your Life

A Small Introduction to Joy Lessons

I’m Michael Lee West, a writer, photographer, and field-note keeper in Lebanon, Tennessee. Joy Lessons began on my kitchen table as a place to practice a different kind of storytelling, one rooted in attention: light on a countertop, blackbirds at a feeder, storms moving over the ridge, and studying seasons.

Over the years, I’ve learned that happiness is fleeting, but a steadier joy can be cultivated through ordinary acts. Lighting a candle. Mixing sugar water for hummingbirds. Sketching a nuthatch. Here you’ll find essays, photographs, and drawings shaped by seasonal living: kitchens and gardens, wild things and weather, the quiet disciplines that keep a life from tipping.

Pull up a chair. We’ll make a pot of chamomile tea, cut into a strawberry cake, and watch the sky over Water’s Ridge.

Visit https://michaelleewest.net to learn about my books

My mother always told me to never give up.
“It’s Not over unlesS you use store-bought cornbread mix. Sifting meal has a purpose. It’s like music. A symphony In your kitchen.”
She was telling me to inhabit my days: to curl up gracefully inside of old age; to embrace ordinary moments; to wait for the cardinal to land in the crepe myrtle tree. She was inviting me to Breathe in wonder.
“Wait for the alchemy to find you,” she said
And you know what? It always does.