The Love of Impermanent Things: A Threshold Ecology [Paperback]

Mary Rose O'Reilley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 28, 2008

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the outset of this quiet, quirky book, O'Reilley (The Barn at the End of the World) declares that she has written neither a memoir nor a collection of essays: rather, she has collected ephemera. In vignettes that recall Barbara Holland's work, O'Reilley discusses the meaning of vocation—her job as a college English professor, she says, would not begin to capture her passion for pottery or her call to the ministry of spiritual direction. Her mother, recently dead, casts a long shadow; some of O'Reilley's strongest prose is about grief. She also pays good attention to nature and animals: dogs, goldfinches, elk and deer meander through her reflections. And this is a deeply spiritual book. O'Reilley equivocates about her belief in God, but she wakes up every morning praying and practices walking meditation. She lambastes the kind of Christians who have tamed and domesticated Jesus. The genre of occasional prose invites annoying, if forgivable, repetition—too many uses of the same Sufi phrase "The soul flies in circles," for instance. A Catholic turned Quaker, O'Reilley rebels against tidy religious language. "I want every spiritual word to be new, minted that second. Or else I want silence." Her language is not grandly new every second, but it certainly is lovely. (May 25)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"Read this book and you will see shards of your own life come into focus through O’Reilley’s observations and confessions." -- Spirituality and Health

"[The Love of Impermanent Things] . . . is profound and poetic enough to get you nodding your head and whispering ‘amen.’" -- Body and Soul --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Milkweed Editions; First Trade Paper Edition edition (June 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571313125
• ISBN-13: 978-1571313126
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,171,437 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Read!, August 4, 2006

By 

Belle - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Love of Impermanent Things: A Threshold Ecology (The World As Home) (Hardcover)

What a fascinating book! I would highly recommend this read. O'Reilley's way with words is mesmerizing. Her book makes you stop and think about your own history, your own family with all its quirks. Her sense of humor and deep reflection on her life make this book a true pleasure to read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, poignant, wise observations about a life, October 24, 2006

By 

S. Kanning "reader and writer" (Kansas, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Love of Impermanent Things: A Threshold Ecology (The World As Home) (Hardcover)

O'Reilly is an excellent writer whose work exhibits the rare combination of sharp observation and deep kindness. She is a seeker, not content with received wisdom or easy answers; her thinking is lively and precise. She also knows how to tell a good story -- and she's very funny.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I LOVE this book...., June 2, 2007

By 

D. Beardsley - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Love of Impermanent Things: A Threshold Ecology (The World As Home) (Hardcover)

and I am only about 100 pages into it. I heard the author interviewed on NPR and decided impulsively to buy the book. It is incredibly written -- funny, wise, deep, reflecting. I am reading it slowly, savoring the stories, and trying to embrace the wisdom of "living the life that I am". I have a copy for my spiritual director...and plan to buy another for one of my dearest friends. For all of us who seek the One that embraces us in Love and Beauty, I recommend this book. Prepare to laugh...at the stories...at yourself...and then settle into the deepest regions of the heart to contemplate what God calls you to be.