The Love of Impermanent Things

Reflecting on the past and a hard-won sense of self, Mary O’Reilley is determined not to sacrifice or waste herself. At midlife, she writes, she is finally learning to withhold after years of struggle on paths set by her suburban childhood, her Catholic upbringing, and a failed marriage. With a new perspective, O''Reilley discovers the pleasure in overlapping worlds and the intersections where rules break down, and she cultivates this border ecology. An animal rehabilitator, she feels the nearness yet difference of the universe the animals know. An apprentice potter, she sees in a Japanese teabowl the ultimate balance of action and contemplation. A woman who lives alone but has a life partner, she knows the joys of both solitude and companionship. And as a Quaker, she can both sit still and sing. This thoughtful book brings readers into a “demo” life that conveys new ways of seeing and a fresh vocabulary for exploring issues of the spirit.