Things of clay may be loosely defined as the
temporal, the bits of your life that you
desire but really do not add significantly to
who you are as a person.
Money,fame,praise, these are all things made of shadows, and a person of virtue should not seek them. Do you desire that woman? Your desire is clay. The woman is clay. It will wash away in a hard rain.
Seek instead love, the respect of your community, the sense that you, that you that dwells below your desires, will not wash away when that hard rain comes to you.