About

I love stories!
Everyone has a unique story.
Stories encourage and inspire.

What dreams do you have?
Let’s journey together.
Doesn’t matter how old or young you are or even what culture you’re from. Our Creator Redeemer has given each of us many good gifts, and He uses people of every tribe and nation. Let’s stir up our gifts and get excited about possibilities.

My goal is to encourage you with the same encouragement that keeps me going. Let’s learn from and pray for one another as we journey toward the goal and especially the ultimate goal of pleasing the One who created us.

Read on to learn how my blog can help you grow as a spiritual and creative person, which will help you achieve the dreams you may or may not know you have.

Who my blog can help

I have been young and now I am not.

Over the years I have mentored people of all ages in discovering their unique gifts and calling in order to live the life of amazing fulfillment and joy for which they were created.

I have also coached fellow writers, photographers and artists in stirring up their gifts for enjoyment and profit.

What I blog about

Helping writers, photographers and artists stir up their gifts, which includes useful tools for creating, marketing and selling.

Helping seekers find the Creator God they are looking for.

Helping restore followers to the passion they first experienced in their walk with Jesus Yeshua.

Some of the topics I write about

How-to’s on writing, art, photography and publication
Connecting with Creator Redeemer
Discovering our unique gifts and calling
Deepening our faith in Creator (Jesus Yeshua)
Finding our Roots
Struggles and joys of the Journey
Bible study methods

On normal weeks, I plan to publish three new posts per week. To make sure you don’t miss any of my newest posts, you can subscribe via e-mail.

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Why I blog

Being spiritually centered is Important! I am passionate about my walk with Creator Redeemer, and I have found joy in my journey even through some very difficult circumstances and much loss. For instance, just one of those losses happened in 1979 when our home in the country burned to the ground with everything in it.

Overnight, we found ourselves homeless with five children, two dogs, less than five dollars in the bank and no insurance. We were homeless for five months, and then we found ourselves in a two-bedroom house smack dab in the middle of town! Not what this old flower child was dreaming of.

Focusing on the positive changes lives. It is through those difficult circumstances that Creator Redeemer began revealing Himself in major ways. He taught us the power of focusing on the good, and true, and lovely. We also discovered that He is bigger than any circumstance we face or weakness we might think we have. He is always good and always faithful and never a day late, though we often think so in the early stages of our troubles.

It is my desire to comfort others with the same comfort with which I have been comforted. Much of what helps me comes from what I have learned from other people’s journeys. It is also my desire to see my sisters and brothers in the Lord realizing their full potential. It is a most exciting way to live!

We must all constantly learn and grow. Blogging keeps me accountable. I must be in the Word or I won’t have anything worthwhile to share with you. I also learn from you as you share your struggles and victories with me. This keeps both of us growing in faith, and then our families and communities receive the benefits.

About my family

The Cat Man and I have been together since 1971, and we love each other more every day.

I was divorced when he met me, and he adopted all three of my children and we had two more together. He loves our two daughters (Michelle and Jocelyn) and three sons (Julius, Rob, and Clay) as if they all carried his own blood. Seeing his love for our children has been one of my greatest catalysts in understanding what it means to be adopted into the family of Creator God. Cat chose the children he adopted in the same way Creator chooses us.

We both became followers of Jesus in 1974. Our two oldest sons led us into baptism.

For seven years, we lived in a home with no electricity or running water in the highlands of Southern Oregon. We built the entire home with our own hands along with nearly everything in it. Cat’s sculptures and paintings added beauty, and my hand-made quilts kept us warm. During wet months, we had to walk a half-mile to reach our house. No phone. No inside plumbing, but we loved it there on the mountain. We lived there for seven years when our house burned down. We finished raising our kids in town and then we returned to the mountains, but this time we have electricity and running water, something I am grateful for every day.

We are very proud of our multi-cultural family.

Two of our sons married sisters from Peru, and we also celebrate Hispanic and Black culture among our tribe. Cat’s family comes from a long line of Scots and Irish and mine is a mixture of Irish, English and Native American. We have fourteen grandchildren and two great grandchildren we love very much, along with several spouses. I have gone from lonely to making my own tribe!

About me

I am the only daughter of southerners, though I did discover a half-sister late in life, or I should say, she found me. Momma was from Arkansas and Dad from the Ozark foothills in eastern Oklahoma. Both have walked on to be with their Lord. They were migrant workers when I was born, and Momma was fond of saying that I could have been born in one of seven different states. My dad passed his wanderlust and spirit of adventure on to me along with his great grandmother’s Native American love of all things wild.

I looked for love in all the wrong places and will always be grateful to Creator Redeemer for bringing Cat and me together in spite of myself. Our lives were changed when we began following Jesus Yeshua. Cat’s change came overnight, mine was a slow process.

The lessons I experienced from this process are a help to other followers of Jesus Yeshua.

Since giving my life to Christ, I have traveled extensively, fishing the Sea of Ohotsk in Far East Russia, sailing over Lake Baikal in Siberia, cycling the backroads of China, rowing across the rivers of Vietnam, swimming in Israel’s Dead Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, trekking across Peru and Haiti, following the steps of Michelangelo and St. Francis of Assisi in Italy, and hiking across Lantau Island of the coast of Hong Kong.

With The Cat Man, I raft rivers in tahitis, hunt deer and elk, ski cross-country and downhill, canoe marshlands, track antelope across the desert, fish rivers and lakes, sailboard and water ski, climb mountains, ride mountain bikes, hike on a daily basis, and just about anything else there is to do in the outdoors. Okay. I admit. I haven’t skied downhill or sailboarded or waterskied in a long while, but everything else is still on the agenda, though it takes me a bit longer to accomplish. Did I say “a bit”? Hmmmm

I have been comfortable in wilderness since I was seven years old and, even now, my friends lovingly call me an “animal magnet.” You will discover evidence of this in my photos. I love all things wild.

My journey from a displaced, lonely child to my discovery of my unique calling as a child of the Most High God has given me insight to encourage others in their own unique calling.

Where to find my popular posts

Here is a sampling of my posts readers have enjoyed.

Spirit….
Our Dwelling Place
??

This is just a sampling. More are added each week.

About my writing

My writing has won several awards including finalist with the Westbow Women of Faith and Jerry Jenkins First Novel Contests several years ago. I have written for many regional magazines, including Oregon Fish & Wildlife Journal, Bugle, Cascade Horseman, Cascade Cattleman, Bible Advocate, Oregon Outside, Christian Quarterly and others. I currently write for Southern Oregon Magazine.

My writing has been featured in many compilations:

My first nonfiction book, Wild Woman: A Daughter’s Search for a Father’s Love (print) you can see reviews here) (Kindle) was finalist in the Westbow/Women of Faith contest several years ago and was published through Westbow Press. It is offered at Amazon in both print and Kindle through Westbow and also republished through Needle Rock Press at a lower price.

My first fiction book, Shaman’s Fire (print) (Kindle), is an authentic Native American suspense story set on the Klamath Rez.

It was a finalist in the Jerry Jenkins First Novel contest several years ago. It is offered in both print and Kindle. Diana Shadley (Ghostdancer’s wife) and Mary Gentry (Ghostdancer’s sister and wife of the current Klamath Chairman) read and approved the Native history and issues of the story.

I am the editor of Eagle People Journal (print) (Kindle), the first Native American Devotional written by a respected Native elder. It is a compilation of entries from Ghostdancer Shadley’s Journals along with his favorite Scriptures rewritten the way he would have said them. Ghostdancer was both, a very dear friend of mine, and one of my honor students at First Nations Institute.

The first book I ever wrote, Songs in the Night (print) (Kindle), is now available on Amazon. I wrote this book before I became a writer and immediately after I gave my life to Creator God. I have left the story pretty much in its original form, because it has touched so many hearts just the way it is. I have received more letters from across the world from this book than any other writing I have done since. There’s something about the rawness of the writing coupled with a newfound faith that strikes a chord with my readers.

About my teaching and coaching

I taught “Writing for Publication” at Pacific Bible College and First Nations Institute for many years. I led and coached classes for Oregon Christian Writers Summer Conference and Southern Oregon Extension for several years and continue to coach classes at Colorado Christian Writers Conference. I also teach photojournalism classes and The Lightbox Method.

About my photography

I have published hundreds of photos in the same magazines that feature my writing as well as the prestigious “Cowboy’s and Indians” magazine. My photos are also featured on Ghostdancer Shadley’s Facebook and Website. You can see a sampling of my photos here.

About my art

My award-winning art has been featured in Art DuJour and Concette Galleries as well as the “Riverwalk” in Shady Cove, Oregon. I am not currently showing in any galleries in order to give myself time to write, but I do currently, have a piece, “Set Free,” that is part of the regional showing of “Words in Red” by Masterpiece Christian Art Foundation. You can view a sampling of my art here.