Living on the Spine: A Woman's Life in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains

It’s the rare woman who creates the opportunity to discover who she is outside of others’ expectations. Facing forty, a spiritual vacuum and a daughter who was college-bound, Nealson moved into the rugged mountains of Colorado in search of a “different kind of learning.” Untethered from the roles that defined her - mother, wife and psychotherapist - she endeavored to live one year alone within the movement of the four seasons. She built a small, remote cabin and marked the passage of time with the moon and sun as she melded with landscape and the wild beings who inhabited her terrain. She stared down bears at midnight and dug her own spring as she carved her existence with her horse, dog and two feral cats. Ultimately, her one year pilgrimage turned to five, as savored solitude and sweat delivered her to revelations about women’s inextricable tie to survival, nature and Eros. Living on the Spine: a book to behold and be held.