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. -12-   We don’t live for happiness; we live for holiness. Day to day, we seek out pleasure, but deep down, human beings are endowed with moral imagination. All human beings seek to lead lives, not just of pleasure, but of purpose, righteousness, and virtue. As John Stuart Mill put it, people have a responsibility to become more moral over time. The best life is oriented around the increasing excellence of the soul and is nourished by moral joy, the quiet sense of gratitude and tranquility that comes as a byproduct of successful moral struggle.   David Brooks   Michael Kent grew up among the few white people in a predominantly African-American neighborhood in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he was bullied by black children and his mother was assaulted by a black man. He became increasingly hateful of black people and eventually found ...

  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...