MSI Press Blog

  Today's meditation from  Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living   by Dr. Frederic Craigie. -13-   Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.   Miles Davis   I am a self-taught fiddle player. I think of myself as “intermediate.” If you know traditional American music and heard me play Whiskey Before Breakfast, you’d probably at least recognize the tune, but you would not steer me in the direction of a recording contract. After many years of trying to find my own way, I decided to take some lessons. Perhaps learning some of the foundational aspects of fiddle playing—how to position and hold the instrument, how to grasp and move the bow—would help me take it to the next level. I knew I didn’t want violin lessons (yes, with some minor modifications: the “violin” and “fiddle” are the same instrument, but the approach to music is worlds apart), and I found a teacher who is a lover of old-time ...

  Today's meditation from  Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living   by Dr. Frederic Craigie. -11-   You get this one life… If you do not have your deepest desires in sight-- and it’s interesting that the word “desire” comes from the Old Latin, meaning “of the stars--” if you do not keep your star in sight, you’re in danger of losing everything that is precious to you, and living out a life that is like a shell.   David Whyte   Remembering who you are is not an idle or academic exercise. You get this one life. Your desires are of the stars. Embracing who you are has a sense of urgency, of eternality. What do you do that is of the stars? What choices do you make that align with the desires, the values, and the passions that are sacred for you? Certainly, visioning is a part of the process. If your life is about compassion, you look for places where you can embody kindness and generosity. If your life is about curiosity...

Today's meditation from  Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living   by Dr. Frederic Craigie. -6-   Although the spiritual dimension is always present, people are not aware of it. If we think of this in terms of images, we can say we have a vintage wine cellar, but we rarely drink from it. We have an interior castle, and we seldom visit it. There is a treasure buried in our field, and we do not know how to unearth it… The distinction between the presence of the spiritual and the awareness of the spiritual is foundational in spiritual teaching and sets in motion the spiritual project. We are asleep, and we need to awake; we are blind, and we need to see; we are deaf, and we need to hear; we are lost, and we need to be found; we are dead and we need to come back to life. All these images point to the spiritual venture of becoming aware of what is there.   Jack Shea   You are alive as you are aware of what is there. ...