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Short People Need a Tree to Climb:
Meditations from the High Country
by Don Ian Smith
ISBN: 0932773104
US$11.95
82 pages, trade paper
"I have used the title SHORT PEOPLE NEED A TREE TO CLIMB, hoping that in each of the chapters you may find a sturdy branch that will help you climb higher in your own special tree, or a branch that is just right for a place for you to sit , and dream, and hope, and pray."
 
Published posthumously, this is Don Ian Smith's last work. The manuscript was among the effects which he gave to his daughter Heidi prior to his death. Written when Don Ian was in his 70s, SHORT PEOPLE brings the same wit and wisdom to the reader that is found in his earlier books of meditations, but from a vantage point later in life.

FOREWORD:
June 2010
My father, Don Ian Smith, passed away on April 26, 2007. He is much missed--not only by his family and his friends, but by the many readers who have been touched by his reflective Christian writings over the years.
Dad was a faithful servant of his Lord and Master, and answered the call to full-time ministry early in life. After 43 years of preaching and pastoring, he "retired"-but he continued to serve and preach, as solo pastor of three part-time "retirement" churches, as part-time staff of two larger churches, and in other short-term roles. And he continued to write.
His simple theology, articulated through the examples that he saw in life around him-in creation, in agriculture, and in daily life-still speaks to us, and conveys the message that God matters, that we matter to God, and that God must be a part of life in order for that life to be fulfilled and complete.
It is a joy, therefore, to have had the privilege of editing and publishing this final manuscript of his, which was among his effects when he passed away. For the past three years, my attention has been focused on the care of my mother and Dad's lifelong companion, Elizabeth (Betty) Smith [note: Betty passed away in October of 2010, just three days after SHORT PEOPLE was released]--and I know that is where Dad would have wanted my attention to be. But the day finally came to dust off this manuscript and sit down at the keyboard to let his words speak. In these chapters, there is an older "Don Ian" than the one who wrote the previous books of "Meditations from the High Country" (BY THE RIVER OF NO RETURN, WILD RIVERS AND MOUNTAIN TRAILS, SAGEBRUSH SEED, and THE OPEN GATE). In these pages one finds the older parent that I came to know so well, who took aging with such grace, despite the frustrations it presented, and who came to dwell more and more on God's promise of eternal life. One finds words of wisdom on storing up treasures in heaven, on having lifelong goals that are worthwhile and reliable, and on having a fixed point in one's life on which one can rely. He was about 73 when he put together the original manuscript--and the deep faith one finds interwoven throughout never wavered, even up to his dying day at 88. As I waited with him in his last days for his Lord to take him home, he knew without a doubt that when he stepped across that final threshold, he would be met with outstretched arms-and I knew that he would hear those wonderful words, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21).
Dad and I talked a great deal in his final years about writing projects that he would have liked to have completed, and about projects that I hope to begin. We collaborated on several short stories, which I still hope to publish as well--either as a collection of short stories or as scripturally-based novels--and which contain both his writing and mine. But for now, it is enough to honor Dad's memory by bringing out this last complete work that was his alone.
Whether you are a new reader, or a long-time "Don Ian" fan, I hope you find as much inspiration in SHORT PEOPLE NEED A TREE TO CLIMB as I have found in preparing it for publication and in hearing my father speak through it to me once more from beyond the grave.
Heidi Smith

 

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