books for remembering our belonging
where earth and spirit meet
Cedar Moon Press publishes nonfiction, poetry, contemplative writing, memoir, and other works rooted in spiritual ecology, nature connection, place, belonging, and the wisdom of the living Earth.
Cedar Moon Press welcomes writers exploring the relationship between our inner lives and the living world—writers whose work invites us to remember that we are not separate from the Earth, from one another, or from the mystery that holds us.
Cedar Moon Press is rooted in a simple understanding: we belong to the living world.
In a culture that so often teaches us to experience ourselves as separate—from nature, from community, from our bodies, and sometimes from the Sacred—we publish books that offer another way of seeing. These are books that invite us to slow down, pay attention, listen deeply, and remember the relationships that sustain us.
Our books explore the places where earth and spirit meet: in forests and gardens, rivers and deserts, seasons and thresholds; in grief and wonder; in solitude and community; in the ordinary practices through which we encounter something larger than ourselves.
We are interested in wisdom rooted not only in ideas, but in lived relationship—with place, with the more-than-human world, with the Sacred, and with the deeper Self.
Our books may explore eco-spirituality and Earth-based practice, personal retreat and contemplation, pilgrimage and place, grief and ecological loss, wonder and attention, seasonal living, or the ways encounters with the natural world shape our understanding of ourselves and the Sacred.
Some will be explicitly ecological. Others will simply recognize something our culture too easily forgets: the human story is part of a much larger story.
We are especially drawn to books that resist treating nature as scenery or metaphor alone. Instead, the living world becomes participant, teacher, companion, and kin.
These are books for a more rooted life—books that help us remember where we belong and invite us into deeper relationship with the world we share.
Interested in publishing with Cedar Moon Press?
Belonging
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Earth
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Spirit
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Place
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Wonder
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Kinship
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Reclamation
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Reciprocity
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Belonging ✳︎ Earth ✳︎ Spirit ✳︎ Place ✳︎ Wonder ✳︎ Kinship ✳︎ Reclamation ✳︎ Reciprocity ✳︎
Cedar Moon Press Books
The Edge of Becoming
You are not lost.
You are becoming. . . .
In a world shaped by urgency, overwhelm, and uncertainty, The Edge of Becoming offers a quiet invitation to pause, breathe deeply, and remember who you truly are beneath expectations, fears, and striving.
These meditations in image and word speak to the moments when certainty collapses, the world feels fragile, and old stories no longer resonate. They name the shadows— grief, exhaustion, perfectionism. The unasked questions, the unnamed fears, and the deep longing for a kinder, gentler, more compassionate way of living.
Blending contemplative photography with lyrical reflections, teacher and spiritual guide Gretchen Martens creates a companion for seasons of transition, loss, reinvention, awakening, and healing. Each meditation pairs image and word to invite stillness, presence, and deeper listening—small moments of reflection that gently guide readers back to the quiet wisdom of their Sovereign Self.
Rooted in contemplative spirituality, Buddhist mindfulness, eco-spirituality, lived experience, and the author’s StoryWork Alchemy™ process, these meditations explore themes of courage, hope, identity, belonging, compassion, and resilient happiness. Rather than offering formulas for self-improvement, this book invites readers into a slower, more relational way of being—one grounded in self-compassion, authenticity, and Self-return.
The photographs throughout the book emerge from the contemplative practice of Miksang (Tibetan for “the good eye”), where ordinary moments of light, shadow, pattern, texture, nature, and changing seasons become visual meditations on becoming.
courage, hope, and inner peace through image and word
Step Into the Void
a spiritual cartography in image and word
by Gretchen Martens
Coming November 2026
What happens when the life we have known falls away—and we cannot yet see what comes next?
Step Into the Void is a collection of poetry and contemplative photography born at the thresholds of loss, surrender, reclamation, and becoming. Moving through grief and uncertainty, wonder and awakening, these poems explore what it means to release our grip on what has been and enter the mystery of what is emerging.
Throughout the collection, the natural world becomes witness, teacher, and companion. Trees, rivers, moonlight, snow, blossoms, dragonflies, and wild places invite us to pay attention—to remember the wisdom of the body, the sacredness of the ordinary, and our ancient belonging to something larger than ourselves.
Intimate and contemplative, Step Into the Void does not promise a path around darkness. It offers something quieter—an invitation to enter it, listen deeply, and discover that the void may not be empty after all. It may be the fertile space where we relinquish what no longer belongs to us, reclaim what has been forgotten, and become more fully who we are.
by Gretchen Martens
Coming April 22, 2027With a vision for building something meaningful, our founder brings a blend of big-picture thinking and hands-on experience. They set the tone for everything we do.
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Wild Wanders
photo safaris for curious kids
by Gretchen Martens
Coming June 2027
Wild Wanders invites children to put down the screen, step outside, and discover what happens when they really begin to look.
Built around playful photo safaris, the book uses photography as a doorway into curiosity, observation, patience, and connection with the living world. Children are encouraged not simply to take pictures, but to notice: patterns and colors, tiny details, changing light, signs of other creatures, and the stories unfolding in ordinary places.
At its heart, Wild Wanders is a book about learning to pay attention.
That capacity matters far beyond photography. Observation helps children understand context. Curiosity teaches them to ask better questions. Patience allows them to see what they might otherwise miss. Attention builds relationship with place. And learning to care about what they notice is one of the beginnings of stewardship.
In a world increasingly shaped by screens, speed, and distraction, Wild Wanders offers children another way of encountering the world—one rooted in presence, wonder, and direct experience.
Because before children can care for their communities and their world, they first have to learn to see them.