Mothers shape the world in which we live through the love and guidence they give their children. Award-winning journalist and photographer Jan Reynolds explored the mother/child relationship through seven stages of life--marriage, pregnancy, birth, infancy, toddling, independence, and adolescence--while living with women in the Himalaya, the Sahara, the Aboriginal Outback, the Amazon Territory, above the Arctic Circle, and Mongolia. Reynolds was struck by the special relationship of these women and children and their deep connection with the natural environment. Her stories and photographs chronicle the ancient art of mothering and describe ways mothers in the modern world can incorporate these indigenous methods into their own lives.