Over the years I have read a fair number of interesting books and one can always tell how interesting a particular book was to me by the amount of passages I underlined with my pen or pencil. On occasion I have gone back and reread what I have underlined and I find this helpful to obtaining depth in regards to understanding a particular author or perspective. I don't like to read books to just gather information but prefer to ponder and think about the potential implications to my own life and society at large. About four years ago I took this practice one step further by purchasing a really nice leather journal and coping particular meaningful passages from certain books to my journal. To date I have now copied about six or seven books in my leather journal. Personally I find this exercise very therapeutic and helpful because it gives me more time to ponder what I have read and I can fit the quotations of numerous books into one single volume which I can carry around with me to work or on vacation...and...when I am finished copying what I have underlined I can then pass along the book to others. I mention all this to say that I am going to pass along some of the quotes I have copied in my journal from time to time...and...if I have the time and energy I will try to add some additional commentary on occasion...

I want to begin with a quote from one of the Thomas Moore books, The Care of the Soul...Moore is a prolific writer who has written many popular books which I have found very interesting and helpful over the years....Moore writes: "When soul is neglected, it doesn't just go away: It appears symptomatically in obsessions, addictions, violence and loss of meaning. Our temptation is to isolate these symptoms or try to eradicate them one by one but the root problem is that we have lost our wisdom about the soul, interest in, or we do not know how to nurture, heal, or satisfy the needs of our soul".....For years, like most people, I have tried this or that to eradicate my own demons or undesirable behavior with little or no success. But now, I pay much more attention to what my soul "may" need when I feel a particular temptation or compulsion coming on...and...over the years I have learned new and healthier ways to meet the needs and desires of my soul without resorting to overly destructive compulsions. I don't claim perfection but I seldom feel overwhelmed by a particular compulsion these days and I attribute that in large part to learning how to feed my soul as opposed to repeated efforts to simply eradicate or repress certain feelings or desires. Eradication doesn't work, imo, because the feelings or desires, are often, but not always, legitimate, it's the way we go about meeting our deepest desires and needs that is often the problem....