Category: Offering HOPE

New Releases, Nurturing Wonder, Offering HOPE, Poetry

Where All Things Meet, Mirror & Mingle

Greetings to past, present (and continuing) friends of Cladach Publishing… from beautiful Colorado! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Larry and I are giving thanks for each of you and for all God’s blessings.

I am thankful that lately, as I am doing less editing of our other amazing Cladach authors, I can catch up on my own writing. With joy and gratitude I am announcing …

My new poetry book has just taken wing!

I think my readers will find these 70 poems on nature, the faith life, and love both provocative and encouraging. One pre-reader said these poems helped them “connect their experiences and challenges to meaning and purpose.” Hearing that gives me joy.

Written during the strange, difficult years of 2019-2025, the poems don’t shrink from hard issues. But, as in all my writings, I seek to continually bring us back to hope, wonder, and courage.

Earthy metaphors sprouted up in my heart and mind to paint word pictures of the sacred in everyday moments.

I think you’ll find that the whimsical art and color photos add to the beauty and experience of this book (My thanks to John Timothy Watkin, nature photographer, for the cover photo). And at the back of the book are 12 pages of notes that cast some light on the contexts in which each poem came to be.

FUN FACT:

Dragonflies will wing up the the book’s margin as you flip the pages!

The paperback is available now for $14.00. Click to order (buy one for yourself and one as a gift):

Thankfully,

p.s. As you taste and savor this offering of poetry, may you be renewed in wonder and courage to exclaim with me …

As sapling roots seek communion in intertwined, forested place;
As a smile resolves into laughter, a touch melts in embrace;
As a honeybee homes in on colony after foraging far, alone,
Caught in storms but again re-orienting, hoping against hope—
I flow to You, reach for You, fly into You.

(last stanza of the poem “You In Me and I In You” from WHERE ALL THINGS MEET, MIRROR & MINGLE.)

Christ, Cladach Authors, Experiencing Community, Offering HOPE, The life of faith

Remembering Those Who Have Gone Before

by Catherine Lawton • 1 Comment

Today is All Saints Day for those Christian traditions that follow the liturgical church calendar.

As publisher and editor-in-chief at Cladach I am reminded of three of our authors who have passed from this life to the next. We never formally acknowledged these passings. So today I would like to commemorate these three, faithful departed saints.

Candi Adermatt

G.H. Cummings

James Troy Turner

I often think of these lines from the hymn “The Church’s One Foundation”:

O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with thee;

That is my prayer as we remember these three Cladach authors who have gone before us:

Candi Adermatt (1947-2015)

Candi worked in the Office of the Provost at Azusa Pacific University as a freelance doctoral-dissertation editor. She belonged to East Valley Authors. She found her greatest pleasure in spending time with her sons and their families. Candi authored the contemporary novel Love Rekindled.

George Herbert Cummings (1929-2019)

Herb had three careers in his long life: serving as a local pastor of churches in Colorado, California, and Oregon. Then as a licensed family counselor. And finally, as an author. He had two daughters (one of whom is yours truly). Rev. Dr. Cummings authored the book Making It In Marriage.

James Troy Turner (1949-2022)

Troy was a Vietnam vet who had a gift for writing poetry in which he creatively expressed his disappointments, questions, dogged faith, as well as observation and insights into life. He found metaphors in the grit of everyday life. He lived in Colorado.

**********

I thank God for the faithful lives they lived. May they rest in the peace of Christ.

Both we and those who have gone before us are part of the mystical body of Christ and the communion of saints.

God be with us all and help us to keep our sights on the “really real” but unseen, and bring us into full union with our God forever.

Experiencing Community, Living Simply, Memoirs, Nature Writings, Offering HOPE

A Tale of Two Creeks

by Catherine Lawton • 4 Comments

(I first wrote and published this post 7 years ago. But the subjects treated here provide needed reminders in these troubled times.)

The two creeks I have in mind don’t surge or produce whitewater. In fact, much of the year, they trickle…through prairie and grassland, over rises and around bends…ever moving, ever adjusting, fed by waters originating in the heights of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains, bringing life and sustenance to more remote, insignificant places.

Neither of these creeks flows through prime real estate attracting big-name land speculators and developers. Yet each has a story to tell of life and death, and of refuge seekers. Each has reflected the faces of generations as they laughed and cried, worked and prayed. And each of these creeks has received the blood, sweat, and tears shed there.

What stories these creeks could—and do—tell: of community…of clashing and contrasting worldviews, lifestyles, and civilizations…of promises and lies, of seeking and finding, of celebrating and mourning.

Big Sandy Creek is noted for being the location of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 in southeastern Colorado. These days, long stretches of this creek appear dry on the surface, but water still flows underground. (A good reminder to us that some things may seem lost or forgotten, but their presence and effects still linger.) John Buzzard’s novel, That Day by the Creek, portrays the hopes and dreams, clashes and conflicts that culminated in the Sand Creek Massacre. There, the tragic, wrongful deaths of a remnant of oppressed human beings surely caused the life-giving Spirit of God to weep. One can imagine that God’s tears mingled with Cheyenne and Arapaho blood flowing into the shores and waters of Sand Creek.

Little Kitten Creek, which flows near Manhattan Kansas, is the namesake of the country road on which Nancy Swihart and her husband, Judd, settled and founded a life-affirming, loving community. Nancy’s memoir, On Kitten Creek, paints the picture of their migration from L.A. “in search of the sacred” in their daily lives, guided by the desire to live simply and Christ-centered. They creatively consecrated and used the land, the farm animals, and the buildings, including a big barn that hosted concerts, conferences and a dramatized Nativity. There, on what had been a dilapidated old farm straddling Kitten Creek, life-giving waters have flowed from the Spirit of God and touched thousands of lives through the years.

A tale of two creeks, two stories of the land, the people, the times—reminding us that God is with us, working in seen and unseen ways to bring good out of rocks and ruins.

Even though the Waters of Life seem at times to flow only in a trickle, or hidden underground, they will never stop until the day finally comes when all things are made new.

Photo by Nashwan guherzi on Pexels.com

Book Publishing, Communication, Experiencing Community, Marketing Books, Memoirs, Offering HOPE, The Publishing Process, Venturing for the Lord

Everything I Need to Know About Publishing I Learned from my Preacher Father

by Catherine Lawton • 4 Comments

My father, G.H. Cummings, preaching on the radio as a young man

Practically being raised on a church pew helped set me on a literary path. We sang with gusto the gospel song, “Publish glad tidings, tidings of peace; tidings of Jesus, redemption and release.” During my growing-up years as my father’s daughter, watching him and my mother minister in many churches, I learned:

The potency and potential of words in a book.

We were people of two books: the Bible and the hymnal. Every church service we opened that wondrous, heavy book, often holding it so the person next to us could share it. The hymnal united us as we joined our voices in lilting melodies and straightforward harmonies accompanied by my mother’s lively piano playing. All the symbols to help us make music together resided on the pages of that book, and resulted in heart-stirring, mind-engaging, and soul-satisfying rhythm, melody, harmony, rhyme and meaning. One hymn declared:

Publish glad tidings, tidings of peace,

Tidings of Jesus, redemption and release!

In every meeting the Bible was also opened—and revered. The congregation stood for “the reading of the Word.” With a reverent, sonorous voice, the preacher read a passage from the Bible, then exhorted from its inexhaustible storehouse of truth, wisdom, and life application. I saw evangelists hold their big, black, leather Bibles aloft in one large hand while exclaiming something like, “The Word of God is alive! It is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing enough to reveal your sin.” And I quaked. But I also learned, quite young, that real comfort could be experienced from those pages. No mere words on paper. But alive! Jumping off the page and into the mind and heart of the reader or the listener. Quickening!

The joy of writing, printing, and disseminating words on paper.

I watched my preacher father as he typed the church bulletin—and perhaps a newsletter—during the week on his old black typewriter (I loved the click clack of the keys and how the little hammers hit the paper, resulting in words appearing and forming themselves into sentences that said something and that people would read and use to plan their week). On Saturday Daddy would crank out copies with his mimeograph machine. I can still smell the ink and hear the sheets of paper swoosh round the rollers and shoot out onto the pile of materials ready to be folded and stacked, then handed out and read—to inform, unite, and influence—to be published!

The importance of getting the word out.

Twice a year our churches held extended revival services with an itinerant evangelist, and, in preparation, Daddy would mimeograph a flyer about the upcoming week of meetings. One time he paid my sister and me per city block to take the flyers door-to-door and invite people to the services (though “city block” doesn’t quite describe neighborhoods in these rural towns surrounded by farms). My sister and I learned the importance of overcoming our trepidation, knocking on doors, and creating buzz (much like the publicity side of book publishing).

The value of reading and sharing books.

We had few toys, and TV (which we acquired when I was 11) was our only “tech” entertainment. But always there were books. Books lined the shelves in my father’s study. He took my sister and me to the public library regularly, encouraging us to browse and check out books that interested us. My sister read every horse book she could find, especially those by Walter Farley. I read all the Louisa May Alcott books. And when we brought books home from school or library, our mother often read them, too, and we all enjoyed discussing together the stories. In fact, my sister and I always told each other the stories we read. As a result, I felt I’d read the Black Stallion books even though I never did. And she knew the characters and plots in Little Women, Joe’s Boys, and Under the Lilacs even though she didn’t read them. She didn’t have to. That ability to vicariously experience the stories really helped, because there were so many more books to discover! (A side note: As a girl I’d hear people argue their point in conversation by saying, “I know it’s true. I read it in a book!” Whether people were readers or not, most had a sort of reverential awe of books.)

The importance of knowing your readers, your audience, your market.

My father made it a practice to call on his flock in their homes regularly and also to be there whenever trouble hit a family. He would stop by their businesses, farms, and work places for a friendly chat. When he stood in the pulpit to preach on Sunday, he knew those people. He knew their families, their joys and sorrows, the challenges they faced. He also knew their interests, their hobbies, what made them laugh or cry.

How to recruit, train, and encourage workers.

The work and mission of the church needed people of all abilities and ages (and still does). I saw discernment in operation, encouragement expressed, and responsibilities entrusted. Organizing, scheduling, holding meetings were necessary. But loving God and loving people mattered most. Whether or not I heard that expressed in so many words, I definitely “caught” the mindset. As a publisher I want to see increased sales and distribution. I want well-edited and designed books, I want engaged authors, reliable print providers, and enthusiastic book reviewers. I want readers to be encouraged, enlightened, and entertained by our books. But most of all I want to experience God’s presence in all we do. I want to always remember that, as a Christian publisher, what we publish truly is “glad tidings” for all!

~~~

Note: I am republishing this revised version of the post published 9 years ago. This material is also included in my newest book, Write & Publish Organically: Dig Deep, Tend the Soil, Help Newness Emerge. Let me know if you read the book, enjoy it, and how it helps you in communicating with others within the challenges of our world today!

~Catherine Lawton

Art in Books, Author Guest Post, Book Illustrations, Cladach Authors, Creative Nonfiction, Healing & Wholeness, Memoirs, Offering HOPE, Perseverence, Relationships

“An Earthly Father Who Just Loves Me”

by Catherine Lawton • 1 Comment

Fathering with faithfulness, courage and hope through pain and uncertainty.

A YOUNG FATHER’S BATTLE

(An excerpt from Mark Fraley‘s Sketchbook story, CREATION OF CALM):

My body has been invaded.

“Dear God, comfort them! I can’t right now.”

“The hardest part… is not being able to pick up my son when he is close to tears.

My heavenly Father says, “I love you and I know it hurts. Put your faith in me.”

Moments together turn into hope, a hope that is reachable and lasting.

My children provide me with strength needed to move forward. I can forget my condition when they are with me.

“So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17 MSG)

A lot of who I am today comes from who my dad has been for years. I thank the Lord for the gift of an earthly father who just loved me!

An encouraging book for anyone facing trials and challenges.

God and Creation, Lent / Easter, Nature Writings, Nurturing Wonder, Offering HOPE, Poetry

Be Still and Know

by Catherine Lawton • 0 Comments

Advent / Christmas, God and Creation, Holiday Reading, Incarnation, Nature Writings, Nurturing Wonder, Offering HOPE, Seasons

Stories for Celebrating Advent and Christmas

by Catherine Lawton • 0 Comments

Celebrating the season of Advent and Christmas calls for stories that are not only cozy, but filled with courage, wonder and hope even in wintry times.

An Enchanting, Illustrated Story-in-Verse for children—and for adults with childlike hearts—who enjoy a Fresh Perspective on Advent, and for those who enjoy experiencing God in nature. In full color:

(Click covers to learn more.)

An Exciting Adventure Novella for Youth and Adults ~ Set in 1864 Frontier Colorado:

A delightful, unique, and reverent short-short Christmas Nativity Story (written from the viewpoint of Mary’s donkey). Available only on Kindle:

From noted and accomplished poet, Mary Harwell Sayler, a collection of poems for every holy day, including a section for Christmas:

A blessed Advent Season to all our friends, readers, and customers.

Healing & Wholeness, Memoirs, Mothers, Nonfiction, Offering HOPE, Relationships

Mother Love

by Catherine Lawton • 0 Comments

We feel sentimental, grateful, or maybe sad on Mother’s Day.

Mother love is beautiful. In many ways it reflects God’s love. It is something to celebrate.

But giving and receiving love between mothers and children doesn’t always come easy.

So many obstacles can get in the way. What do we do, then, with mother wounds and losses, the conflicts, and the unmet needs we may carry? In the book, Journeys to Mother Love (Cladach, 2012) nine women – mothers and daughters of all ages – share how they overcame hurts and conflicts between mother and child, experienced relational healing, and found new freedom to give and receive love. Women with broken places in their relationships with mother or child can begin their own healing journey as they read:

“Run, Run, as Fast as You Can” by A.R. Cecil

“She Did Her Best” by Treva Brown

“Take Care of Your Mother” by Verna Hill Simms

“Finding the Blessings in Alzheimer’s” by Kerry Luksic

“Beauty from Barrenness” by Kyleen Stevenson-Braxton

“When I Feel Forsaken” by Catherine Lawton

“Finishing Well” by Ellen Cardwell

“Walking My Mother Home” by Ardis A. Nelson

As always, I appreciate readers and reviewers taking time to contribute their responses after reading the book. For example:

“An anthology of heartfelt true stories by Christian women about the healing gifts of God, and how He helped mothers bridge rifts between themselves and their children or stepchildren…. Profound, powerful … highly recommended.”

− Midwest Book Review

“The emotional distance between a mother and daughter can be painful and prolonged. The heart-wrenching stories in Journeys to Mother Love reveal how God can bridge this chasm with healing and love.”

− Nancy Parker Brummett, author of Take My Hand Again: A Faith-Based Guide for Helping Aging Parents

“From murder to manipulation, Alzheimer’s to abandonment, through barrenness and bewilderment, this crisply-written compilation of stories is arresting and unflinchingly honest. You will find elements of your own journey in all of them; you will want to join the company of these courageous women who are now traveling with less of a limp and more of a leap.”

− Alice Scott-Ferguson, author of Mothers Can’t Be Everywhere, But God Is

“Mothers of all ages, from all walks of life, in their own voices tell their stories of hurt and healing to guide others down similar paths to freedom and forgiveness. If you felt neglected as a child, suffered abuse of one sort or another or had to deal with a complicated mother/daughter relationship, this book is for you. Each chapter ends with a short bio and photo of the author, and it was interesting to note how negative experiences can turn into ministries. All the women testify to the faithfulness of God regardless of circumstances and offer inspirational reading at its best.”
− Shirley Brosius, author of Sisterhood of Faith

Motherhood is a journey! As Caroline Kennedy wrote in She Walks in Beauty, “Having a child defines us for the rest of our lives…. Each mother-child relationship teaches us our limitations and our strengths. It changes us in constantly unfolding ways and entwines us in the unpredictable mystery of another life….”

Yes, and when we attend to the grace entwined in that mystery, then healing, love, even forgiveness can begin to unfold and birth beauty in and through even difficult, challenged, and strained mother-child relationships.

(This post first written in 2017 and revised May 10 and 13, 2024.)

Answering the Call of Christ, Authentic Faith, Creative Nonfiction, Experiencing Community, Following Jesus, God and Creation, God working in history, Offering HOPE

Together With God

by Catherine Lawton • 1 Comment

In this poetic essay I engage with the idea that we need to get involved—with others—in what God is doing in our world. Will we listen to what the past and present are saying, so we can move together WITH our loving God now … stepping into the possibilities that call us to a renewed future?

WITH

When the angel said to Mary, “For nothing is impossible with God”

and when Jesus said, speaking of the rich young man, “With God all things are possible”

did they mean that God would single-handedly make seemingly-impossible things happen?

Well, surely “with” means with. Possibilities are not actualities. But they can become so.

First, choices will be made . . . by God, by us. . . .

Choices matter in each

attraction or encounter.
touch or grasp.
reaction or response.
intersection or dead-end.
word spoken or thought silenced.

And, as in the case of Mary, life-giving choices and actions don’t happen alone but

WITH.

Whence comes this ability and necessity to choose, this invitation to respond and cooperate?

—From One who speaks potentiality, beauty, and creativity out of Love . . . connecting us as persons, relating us to all of nature, to every part of ourselves, and to God (through Christ who gives us life and the Spirit who is with us). We are image-bearers. We are all in some sense

WITH.

Living here in time and space, each of our moments is thick with the past—and pregnant with the future—calling us to be creators, curators, visionaries, encouragers, healers, leaders, servants.

Will we

receive the breath

heed the voice

cleave to the nearness

of God?

Will we give birth to actions of faith, hope, and love

WITH?

Look up—attend, listen to this present moment.

Look back—see the river of the past feeding into the now.

Look down—see that we are standing in an estuary of the potent, teeming present.

Look toward the horizon—see the future rolling and swelling. Which waves will break upon the shore?

Look around—all that surrounds us, that the river currents and ocean tides wash in, how it is mixing. At this time, in this place, what can we do to bring

clarity not murkiness?
free flow not stagnation?
sweetness not putridity?
abundance not scarcity?
hope that helps people know they are

WITH?

We are part of the becomingness of everlasting life!

Will we face the moment, listen to what it is saying about us, about the past that has influenced who we are, about what we are bringing into the future, and what the future may be bringing to us?

God—being revealed through Jesus, the Scriptures, and creation—is patient, persistent, longsuffering, even slow . . . convincing, helping, here

WITH.

Like compass needles, we seek, seek True North; and True North wants to, wills to, be found.

Yet, bent, we wobble and resist.

But God is not a faraway star. God is

the true atmosphere giving us breath.
the true magnetism holding us together.
the true dawn waking us again and again.

Does the needle think it is the true one and North should get in line?

God “strengthens the humble but opposes the proud.”—

This is to say, when we set ourselves in opposition, we cannot join hands

WITH.

No matter where we go, where we have been, where our feet stand now in time . . . we are not alone, never away from God’s influence, care, wooing. If “God with us” holds all our times past—keeps our “tears in a bottle”. . . . If God at every moment sees all the possible steps into the future. . . . If God imagines the myriad possible intersections of our path with the paths of others. . . . Then let us act, step out, take hold, clasp hands, join hearts

WITH.

Forces exist that would divide us, separate us, within, without.

God—Love—would bring us together.

In this estuary of the consequential, substantial present . . .

The young gambol in swirls of fresh water, thinking they’ll forever play among the land mammals, trees, and sun-drenched grasses.

We who have traveled longer sense saltiness in the water and feel the undertow pulling away from familiar moorings. We will soon find ourselves in the waters of what from here appears to be dark swelling mysteries and unfathomed depths … to a separation temporal, but a connection and communion everlasting.

Fresh water and salt water mingle here and now, but these waters continually recede, like breath and blood flowing in and out of lungs—rhythms of life attuned

WITH.

If we have a God who speaks, comforts, helps,

and in whom “all things hold together,”

then surely God is continually present to us and all creation?

And if God’s Spirit is manifest “wherever two or three are gathered,”

then surely God the Spirit is speaking and influencing here, there,

WITH.

In this moment, are we thriving?

How can we continue to stand, let alone flourish, if divided against ourselves—lacking harmony in our inner lives, our families, our churches, our nations, our world?

We say we believe some form of:

“God created the heavens and the earth.”
“God called creation ‘good’.”
“God so loved the world. . .”

Then God isn’t against us but

WITH!

Can we agree, in this in-between time of grace and faith, as we open our hearts and minds to the Alpha and Omega, to seek God’s reign and will “on earth as it is in heaven,” and work together

WITH?

This moment carries roots and leaves of past moments and seeds of all future moments. What we do—now—matters. Is this present mix of waters rich with life and health both ecological and societal? Jesus said we are “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.” We are caretakers of creation and each other when we partner

WITH.

Why do we blindly and stubbornly waste personal and corporate energies on greedy squabbles and turf wars?

Can we

accept slowness; unplug, listen, “fear not”?
trust together in creation’s innate ability to heal and renew, and accept our part in that?
acknowledge our own need for healing and renewal?
choose a mindset of benevolence for all?
have faith and hope in goodness and salvation?

Surely our God of creative, gracious, relentless love, will help us to join

WITH.

We need each other.

Will we lead the way by giving up worn-out stances, protectiveness, fear?

Let us be conservative—conservers of the truly good.

Let us be liberal—truly generous and tolerant.

We can each take responsibility to do something to make a positive difference, to be life-giving, to partner with God and each other in what Love seeks to do and calls us to participate in, as co-laborers. This labor is not burdensome, when we are yoked

WITH.

I know some people who choose to listen to, love freely, and work with God to sweeten the waters where they stand:

A prosperous, conservative Christian couple who cultivate acres of gardens to grow produce for their local food bank.
An evangelical pastor who has organized a ministry of prayer, friendship, and outreach to Muslim refugees in his city.
A retired professor and writer who follows God in vulnerability, revealing her trauma and healing to help others.
Contemplatives and poets who listen to and articulate a language of the heart to reach and touch fellow longing hearts.
Theologians reaching across institutional divides with hopeful understandings of God’s essence and presence.
A quiet man who invites neighbors into his home, where he and his wife pray and care for them, and share life together.
Wounded healers who listen, love, and pray with all who come; inviting, seeking, finding Jesus in broken places.
My friend who sits with people dying alone in hospital, so they will not die alone but know they are

WITH.

We stand here in a richness of the influential past and the potential future

as hope enlivens the waters. Will we: