The Book of the Lamp — Read free with Kindle Unlimited · Kindle eBook: $0.99 · Paperback: $5.75.
📖 STORY / FICTION The EVERgreen Chronicles™
📚 Books & Stories
🎄 Our Christmas 2026 Feature · ✨ Just published
👣 The Book of the Lamp: To Thy Feet™ — A Persian Chronicle
Nathanael’s second book: allies, community, and the road back to the Garden, from Persia and the Bible to today’s world. ⭐ From the Magi’s journey to the light of Bethlehem, a hopeful story to give and share this Christmas 2026.
🪔 Carry the light. Protect life. Help humanity flourish.
★★★★★ The Book of the Lamp — Reader Voices
🍎 Barbara Weaver
★★★★★ · September 22, 2026
“Very creative, well written book challenging us to carry the light forward.”
Nathanael’s third-grade teacher, writing about the book’s creative imagery, love, hope, family memory, and call to carry the light forward.
🌿 Erik L.
★★★★★ · September 24, 2026
“To Read Again. And to Comprehend.”
A caregiving perspective on self-care, purpose, younger-reader accessibility, everyday health, and reconnecting with why people choose to help.
See all reader voices · Read reviews on Amazon ↗
Independent reader opinions, quoted and attributed to their authors. Amazon may group reviews differently across editions.
🌲 Welcome to the bookshelf. The EVERgreen Chronicles™ are story books by Nathanael Elijah Smith, MSN, APRN, FNP-C, DipACLM, with practical companions and true stories alongside them. The characters, places, and events in the Chronicles are story: they give Kitchen Monk’s real-world practice a language of lamps, gardens, and voyages, but they are not biography and not medical advice.
📖 The books, in story order
Every book is labeled so you know what you’re reading: 📖 Fiction for the story books, and 🩺 Clinical education for the practical companions.
🟢 Available now 📖 Fiction
🪔 The Book of the Lamp: From Crimea to the Kitchen Monk
The EVERgreen Chronicles™. By Nathanael Elijah Smith, MSN, APRN, FNP-C, DipACLM.
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.
Formats: 📱 Kindle ebook · 📕 Paperback (both on the same Amazon listing).
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Very creative, well written book challenging us to carry the light forward.”
— 🍎 Mrs. Barbara Weaver, Nathanael’s third-grade teacher · Amazon review
🪔 With gratitude to Kelly Freeman, 🏆 2nd Annual Lifestyle Medicine Nursing Award recipient (Lifestyle Medicine 2025) and Director of Workforce Development at the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, whose work helps nursing flourish in lifestyle medicine. A tribute from the author; Kelly did not review or endorse the book.
📘 Paperback: $5.75
📱 Kindle ebook: $0.99
✨ Free with Kindle Unlimited
📅 Prices as listed on Amazon in October 2026.
For a sample, use Amazon’s “Read sample” or “Look inside” on the listing, where available.
🟡 Coming soon 📖 Fiction
🌻 The Book of the Garden™: Nursed to Flourish
The EVERgreen Chronicles™. By Nathanael Elijah Smith, MSN, APRN, FNP-C, DipACLM.
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?
Formats: not yet published. No purchase link yet.
🟢 Just published 📜 History, Scripture & true stories
👣 The Book of the Lamp: To Thy Feet™ — A Persian Chronicle
By Nathanael Elijah Smith, MSN, APRN, FNP-C, DipACLM. A hopeful journey from ancient Persia to our modern world, weaving history, Scripture, and true stories: from the biblical story of Persia and Cyrus, to Florence Nightingale’s legacy of compassionate care, to today’s conflicts in Ukraine, Iran, and beyond. A call for unity, service, and flourishing for every person and every nation.
🌿 Carry the light. Protect life. Help humanity flourish. Along the way, travelers learn that caring for feet is a way of caring for one another, with the Keeper of the Feet at the House of Healing and the Shoemaker Otter of Evergreen Harbor.
Formats: 📚 Available now on Amazon (see the listing for current formats and prices). Any co-author or clinical-review role will be named only after it is confirmed.
🟡 Coming soon 🩺 Clinical education
☕ The Book of the Garden™: The Cup of Flourishing
By Chef Robin Jeep & Nathanael Elijah Smith, MSN, APRN, 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.
🌵 Chief Flourishing Chef Robin Jeep is our Chief Culinary Guardian.
Formats: not yet published. No purchase link yet.
📝 True stories from the journey
These are real experiences, not fiction. They are shared with permission and are not medical advice.
🏃 Back to Running
Nathanael’s own story of foot care, patience, and getting back on the trail, with gratitude to the clinicians who helped.
🩺 When the Physician Needs a Nurse Practitioner
Our featured story about who cares for the caregiver. It lives on our companion site, Flourishing Nursing, with the other stories from nurses and care teams.
🥗 A free cooking guide to go with the book
This part is real-world health education, not part of the story. The free Practical Plant-Based Cooking guide from the Veterans Affairs Healthy Teaching Kitchen, plus a free 7-day meal plan built from it.
Created by Veterans Affairs’ Green Environmental Management System Clinical Work Group and Healthy Teaching Kitchen (May 2023). Kitchen Monk is independent and not endorsed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. General education, not an individualized diet.
📚 Recommended books · Friends of the flourishing movement
How to Fully Live
By Ruben J. Guzman, MPH, DipACLM (“Coach Ruben”), our 🔥 Chief Transformational Coach (honorary title, accepted October 9, 2026), a board-certified lifestyle medicine professional in the Sacramento area and author of Evolving Health.
A full-length guide to living with more energy and vitality through lifestyle medicine, written by someone who lived it: Coach Ruben lost more than 50 pounds in 1995 and has spent four decades in the health field, including public health training at the University of California, Los Angeles.
International Standard Book Number 9798997080303. An independent book by another author, not a Kitchen Monk publication. Recommended by Nathanael. 🤝 “Chief Transformational Coach” is an honorary Kitchen Monk™ title, not a professional credential or license; Coach Ruben, a coach we proudly recommend, accepted it on October 9, 2026. No payment is involved, and Kitchen Monk earns nothing from any link. Educational reading, not personal medical advice.
🗞️ 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, Chief Flourishing Chef Robin Jeep writes about the day Nathanael came to her kitchen to learn plant-based cooking and the nurse-led vision that followed.
⭐ 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.’”
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 artificial intelligence assistance in parts of the creative process, and some illustrations are made with artificial intelligence 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. Free; enter your email below and unsubscribe anytime.
🦉 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 steady us through storms. Others teach us to navigate. 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 Foundation
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.
⛵ Ride Out the Storms
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.
ℹ️ 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.
🧭 Where to next?
Rooted in faith and compassion, welcoming people of every faith and none. · Last updated October 14, 2026. Spot something wrong? Email rfjeep@gmail.com.
🪔 Stories that carry a lasting commitment
The lamp, the garden, and the Ukrainian Tryzub in our updated crest express our founder’s commitment to light, nourishment, human dignity, and solidarity with Ukraine. Our solidarity with Ukraine continues through victory, healing, and rebuilding.
💙💛 Stand with Ukraine: our promise and ways to help →
Book purchases do not make a charitable donation. Use the independent support links to give directly.
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” 
