📖 STORY / FICTION The EVERgreen Chronicles™
Books & Stories
The EVERgreen Chronicles are fictional books by Nathanael Elijah Smith, FNP-C, DipACLM. Their characters, places, and events are story. They give Kitchen Monk’s real-world practice a language of lamps, anchors, and gardens, but they are not biography and not medical advice.
The books, in story order
● BOOK I · PUBLISHED · FREE ON KINDLE
The Book of the Lamp
From Crimea to the Kitchen Monk. A journey from Crimea to the Oregon Coast, and the beginnings of Kitchen Monk™. A lamp cannot light an entire forest, but it can light the next step.
Free to read on Kindle. You’ll need a free Amazon account and the free Kindle app or a Kindle device.
◐ BOOK II · IN DEVELOPMENT
SAIL: The Book of the Anchor
Sailing with community as our anchor. The journey reaches the Salish Sea, with islands, ferries, and companions who help a traveler navigate. An anchor can be a person, a practice, or a boundary. It never means staying tied to harm.
◐ BOOK III · IN DEVELOPMENT
The Book of the Garden: Nursed to Flourish
What people and places need in order to flourish: nourishment, care for caregivers, honest repair, and time. At its center is one question: who nurses the nurse?
◐ IN DEVELOPMENT · A CO-AUTHORED COMPANION
The Book of the Garden: The Cup of Flourishing
By Chef Robin Jeep & Nathanael Elijah Smith, FNP-C, DipACLM. A clinical culinary medicine companion that connects the Garden’s themes to hands-on cooking. It is separate from the narrative series, and more will be shared when it’s ready.
Robin is also leading an effort to bring Kitchen Monk to a community college in New Mexico. Meet Chef Robin Jeep
The EVERgreen Story · The Documented Journey
The books on this page are story: lanterns, Seawolves, owls, and ships. Kitchen Monk’s real-world beginnings are documented separately. In Women’s Wellness / OptiMYz, Robin Jeep writes about the day Nathanael came to her kitchen to learn plant-based cooking and the nurse-led vision that followed. Read Robin Jeep’s article ↗ · Kitchen Monk in the World
Reader Responses
“To Read Again. And to Comprehend.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ · Erik L. · the first reader review of The Book of the Lamp
Writing after more than a decade of caregiving, Erik described a book that made him stop and think without asking every part of the story to be read literally. He contrasted it with self-help that simply tells readers what to do, and said it led him to reflect on the everyday demands healthcare workers face and how easily they can lose sight of why they chose to help. He noted that young readers could enter the story and still take real-life knowledge from it, and that it offers caregivers a human reminder about self-care, purpose, and reconnecting health with everyday life. He closed with this:
“He’s more than a character. More than a brand. He’s an idea, and an idea that just may have the potential to ‘flourish.’”
Read Erik’s full review and others on Amazon ↗
The books tell the story. The website opens the world. The programs put the ideas into practice. The community carries them forward.
A note on how these books are made: The EVERgreen Chronicles are written by Nathanael, with AI assistance in parts of the creative process, and some illustrations are made with AI tools. Technology helps build the lantern. People provide the light.
🪔 A Moment by the Lamp
Where does your life need more light?
Get updates on new books, excerpts, and events:
The teaching carried forward
At the heart of the Chronicles is a lesson that travels. Willow the Wise Owl teaches a little Seawolf, at his own eye level, how to ask for help and how to stand with others. He carries that lesson through storms and long seasons as he grows into Daniel, the Great White Seawolf. Later, he listens to the Flourishing Guardians, children and animal friends alike, and passes the lesson on.
This is a story. Willow is a fictional character inspired by Nathanael’s late English teacher, Mrs. Sandra Smith, and the scenes are not biography.
🪔 The Book of the Lamp · The Lamps Before the Lamp
The Lamp Is Never Lit Alone
Every person who eventually carries a lamp was once helped by someone else’s light. Kitchen Monk™ honors the mentors, family members, patients, nurses, clinicians, teachers, and communities who helped illuminate the trail.
Some people light the trail. Others become anchors. Others teach us how to SAIL. All become part of the voyage.
Six Paths Through the Story
Find Your Lamp
Discover purpose, hope, and the beginning of your health journey.
Build Your Anchor
Strengthen the routines, relationships, and community that help changes endure.
Cultivate Your Garden
Learn to nourish your body, your home, your community, and the world around you.
Learn to Sail
Develop the skills to navigate change, setbacks, and storms.
Find the Pearls
Explore the nine dimensions of flourishing.
Take Flight
Move from personal change toward leadership, service, and helping others rise.
The Nine Pearls of Flourishing
The Nine Pearls are Kitchen Monk’s real-world framework for whole-person health. In the books, the pearls’ own names and stories are still being written, so the Chronicles may tell them differently.
The EVERgreen Pearl: Nutrition
Nourishment, gardens, and kitchens.
The Golden Pearl: Movement
Walking, cycling, and adventure.
The Midnight Pearl: Sleep
Restoration, rhythm, and renewal.
The Blue Pearl: Mindfulness
Still water, breath, and calm.
The Rose Pearl: Relationships
Love, friendship, and belonging.
The Flame Pearl: Purpose
Calling, courage, and service.
The Silver Pearl: Community
Flourishing together, not alone.
The Ocean Pearl: Global Impact
Stewardship beyond ourselves.
The Rainbow Pearl: Faith & Compassion OPTIONAL
Grace, mercy, and hope, for those who want it.
Stories teach; clinical care diagnoses. The Chronicles help people understand health ideas, but they never replace medical evaluation, treatment, mental-health care, or individual nutrition advice. Faith-oriented themes are offered for those who value them, and nothing on this site requires religious belief.
