Between the Harbour and the Mountain: Reflections on the Ordinary and the Profound

By Patricia Williams

Abstract

In this beautifully written and elegantly presented book the author, Patricia Williams, offers us her contemplations on the everyday world she encounters, with particular attention to the natural world and its ordinary and wondrous manifestations. Whilst many of us in today’s technological age allow our attention to be distracted from the intimate detail of the natural world that enables life on this planet, Williams invites us to notice the extraordinary and sometimes frightening detail of this world within which we are all embedded, indeed intimately interconnected, as she brings her piercingly attentive gaze to the everyday. In doing so Williams reflects upon the meaning she has drawn from her rich and courageous life, allowing us not only to encounter the natural world through her eyes, but also to enter into the mind of a woman, now formally retired, who has spent her life reflecting upon and engaging with the deep questions of meaning with which we all might grapple, should we have the courage to do so.