About Mountain Living: Finding a Way by Robert Nichols

about Mountain Living Summary A journey told in story and poem. A life trek from discontent and restlessness to commitment and discovery. You know, the ‘way’ we all should seek—the path to self-actualization. For me, my ‘way’ began with timeclock toil and its shackles of security and comfort. But, due to a quirk in life trajectory when I was fifteen, instead of an accountant or a tool-and-die maker, I became a poet. Well, this poet gave normalcy a try for a couple of decades and then headed west from urban flatlands and up into the wilds of the Rocky Mountains. This work tells of a succession of habitats and life styles progressing farther and farther from the city and further into a better destiny—from apartment to cabin to tipi to hilltop shrine of art, nature, and spirit. A journey from complacent certainty to out-on-the-edge primal survival. Man was it cold and lonely 10,000 feet up the side of a mountain. Cold, raw and—WOW!—the pure stuff of fear, bliss, and laughter. Just what this poet needed to become himself. So, what does all this have to do with you? Plenty. There are many journeys we all take—treks through phases of our lives: some intellectual, some emotional, and all in some way are spiritual. So, don’t worry. You don’t have to build a tipi, sleep in an arctic sleeping bag with a 12-gauge shotgun beside you, or bathe in a glacial stream to find your better self in this lifetime. Find your own mountains, your own turning paths, you own regions of fear, reverence and, hoot-to-the-Heavens celebration. Find yourself. Perhaps my story will encourage yours. And, oh yeah, beyond the tale I tell, just read the poems and stories as the art they are intended to be. You will laugh and weep and contemplate—you will be changed.