"A version of the story "Color of Being" was published in Women in Nature: An Anthology in 2014."--Title page verso

Smoky Mountain preparation -- Listening -- Shape shifting -- Nuclear kids -- Awakening -- Alchemy -- Black bird -- Smoky Mountain embarkation -- Summer child -- Last frontier -- Cave of angels -- Quest -- Rain -- Smoky Mountain absorption -- Becoming -- Ishi -- Afloat -- First People -- Pilgrim -- Hidden lakes -- Smoky Mountain exodus -- Caterpillars and moths -- Re-entry -- Wandering in two worlds with an arctic shaman -- Epilogue : when I am an old woman

"From internationally acclaimed eco-warrior and environmentalist-and the subject of recent New York Times, The Guardian, and Outside magazine profiles-Lynx Vilden comes a stunning debut memoir on how to return to and nurture the Earth and ultimately, ourselves"--

"In this memoir, earth advocate chronicles her journey to reconnect with the earth, offering a model for how we all can nurture the wild around and inside ourselves. In 1991, twenty-four-year-old Lynx Vilden crawled out of a sweat lodge covered in mud, her face streaked with tears, and whispered a promise to the earth: "I will love you and cherish you, I will learn how to live and share what you teach me." That promise became Vilden's life purpose: to return to the ways of our oldest ancestors, to a simpler life, and to listen deeply to Earth and what she has to say. Over the next thirty years, Vilden's mission would lead her far from the city streets and punk bands of London and Amsterdam where she was raised, on a long and winding journey spanning continents and seasons, and filled with indigenous wisdom, Stone Age hunting skills, and important lessons from nature. In this illuminating memoir, Vilden shares the joys that await all of us when we reconnect with the earth, when we recognize what has been lost, and understand what we gain by meaningfully returning to our roots and become rewilded. Return is a glimpse into her extraordinary world--from stories about mentoring Silicon Valley millennials at her Stone Age immersion in rural Washington State to adventures traveling among Sami reindeer herders in Arctic Sweden to detailing the intricacies of just how to pursue and survive a wild lifestyle inspired by Stone Age humans"--