“In The Light of Ordinary Days, a European American writer discovers her own native ancestors across the sea and practices the ancient rituals of light, stone, and vision. These are the teachings and guidance we need. An exquisite rendering of ancestral reconnection—brave, honest, and transformational.

                     —Deena Metzger, author of La Vieja: A Journal of Fire and A Rain of Night Birds

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“To read The Light of Ordinary Days is to immerse oneself in the holiness of the land and waters, the holiness that has the potential to heal what is broken in our families, our souls, and even in our world. There are books that must be written, books that save lives, and this is one of them.”       

                     ––James Janko, author of The Wire-Walker

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“In this deeply moving love song to Ireland and the human heart, Carolyn Brigit Flynn brilliantly explores the legacy of her Irish ancestors and the true meaning of homeland.”

                  —Laura Davis, author of The Burning Light of Two Stars and coauthor of The Courage to Heal

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“Carolyn Brigit Flynn’s grasp of Ireland is superb. I have relations in New York and Georgia, and as a child, my encounters with them as they returned to Ireland were so similar to Carolyn’s accounts of her first visits to Ireland that, at times as I read, I was transported back to my youth and those brash, exotic American visitors. A beautiful book.”

                —Gerard Clarke, Irish ecologist and history guide

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“Carolyn Brigit Flynn walks old paths and explores new stories, her writing as grounded as the stone walls she walks between. The Light of Ordinary Days will resonate with anyone who has ever looked across water and felt the tug of a land they’ve never known. This book reminds us that home isn’t just where we’re from, but where our spirit finds solace.”

                  —Carina McNally, author of Mithim and Irish guide in the Beara Peninsula

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“This is a graceful, beautiful journey through the life and land of a deeply caring woman. It took me in gently, then carried me through intimate stories, ancient green fields, old towns, and voices resonating off stone walls in an echo of eternity. It is a vital remembering, a connecting with the love at the center of our lives, and a truly exquisite read—one that invites and beckons my heart each step of the way.”     

—Stan Rushworth, author, We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth

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“The Light of Ordinary Days shows how an Irish Catholic daughter, who is thrown out of the house and the family for being queer, finds her own people, both historically and in the present moment. Her deep dive into intimate personal experiences, rendered with breathtaking honesty, is given in the context of many larger Irish stories. She explores the suffering of the Great Hunger, the continuation of that trauma in our own time, and where and how both countries and individuals can find healing.”   

—Mary Dingee Fillmore, author of An Address in Amsterdam

 

“In Carolyn Brigit Flynn’s beautiful, spirited memoir, we find ourselves on a pilgrimage of the mind, heart, and soul of the author and her ancestral country, Ireland. Each chapter shimmers with deep reflections the way a river casts back our own reflections in the flow of our lives and history. Flynn’s sacred task is connecting with self, family, ancestors, and this nurturing earth, Gaia. We truly find ourselves as we read and experience this profoundly courageous, honest, far-reaching journey that, in the end, brings us home to what matters.”

         —Regina O’Melveny, author of The Sea-Cure and A Good Broom

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“Carolyn Brigit Flynn has written an Irish wool blanket to wrap around your shoulders while you travel with her on her journey to Ireland and to herself. Her sense of place and her elegant descriptive powers impel you to keep traveling as she weaves Irish history and culture with her own insights. This is a book you might need to read in one sitting.”

       —Sue Boothe-Forbes, director, Anam Cara Writer’s and Artists Retreat, Eyeries, Ireland

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“Carolyn Brigit Flynn’s The Light of Ordinary Days treats ancestry as something active, not decorative. . . . The memoir moves through family history, Irish history, and Flynn’s attempt to understand what can still be restored after a life breaks open. . . . The prose is lyrical and often reverent. . . . For readers who like literary memoir with historical and emotional weight, this is a thoughtful and searching book.”     

—Manhattan Book Review

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“Carolyn Brigit Flynn’s generous memoir The Light of Ordinary Days chronicles her travels and weighs ancestral tragedies to reinforce ideas about the Irish people’s resilience. . . . The memoir’s musing, sometimes poetic prose is elegiac, distinctive, and observant. . . . An affecting memoir.”

 —Foreword Clarion Review

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“Flynn’s journey takes the form of a historical and spiritual pilgrimage…and herein lies the special quality of The Light of Ordinary Days. Its connection between healing, a sense of place, and new discoveries invite readers to walk alongside Flynn as she contemplates the nature of what is revealed and celebrated of the past and what can remain hidden. . . . readers seeking a blend of travelogue, memoir, family and country history, and Irish lore and spirituality will relish how deftly The Light of Ordinary Days weaves together all these facets to create an inviting, contemplative journey readers will want to take for themselves." —Midwest Book Review