Soulful Relationships

I've been reading Thomas Moore's book "Soul Mates". It is much more than the name implies. I'm finding it to be a profound discussion of soulfulness in all relationships. I don't agree with everything Moore says but I like his compassionate viewpoint. Here's an excerpt:

“If we could understand this fundamental intuition about the soul, that it is given raw, then we might forgive ourselves and others for not being quick to handle relationships with grace. We might see that many problems are due not to one person’s maliciousness but to the law that soul stuff is given in unrefined lumps and requires a long process of sorting, shaping, refining , and even transmuting – all operations of alchemy.”

“Soulful intimacy is not to be found in clean, well-structured, meaningful, unperturbed, ideal unions, if such a union even exists. Perfection may well appeal to the mind, or to the part of us that craves spiritual transcendence, but soul doesn’t establish a home there. For some perverse reason, it prefers the colors of feelings, the tones of moods, the aberrations of fantasy, and the shades of disillusionment. Although these vagaries of the soulful life may be disturbing and painful, there may be some consolation in knowing that, like a compost heap, they are fertile and promise a rich future.”