It's easy today to lose the deep, direct, and vivid sense of living with passion and originality.  Thomas Moore states in his preface that we are "chronically trying to be someone other than this original self, persuaded that we are not adequate and should fit some norm of health or correctness, we may find a cool distance may gradually separate us from the deep and eternal person, that God-given personality, and we may forget both who we were and who we might be."

The fifty meditations in this collection offer fresh interpretations of living with originality rather than conformity, presenting multidimensional portraits of the creative self and different angles from which to tap one's primal emotions and possibilities.  These pages show what it means to live from the burning essence of the heart, with the creativity that comes from allowing the soul to blossom in its own colors and shapes.  Simple and beautiful woodcut drawings accompany each meditation, showing the primal yet complex nature of experience and suggesting with great subtlety the themes of paradox and contrariety that characterize the deep self.

With his usual grace and insight, Moore counters the prevailing assumptions of the day and offers strikingly unorthodox views on what is virtuous and healthy, opening up possibilities for a renewal of the way we live socially and in our private lives.