MSI Press Blog

  Coming Soon! Available now on pre-order!  Nothing So Broken   by Chris Richards. Book to be released August 31, 2025. Book description:  In the shadow of loss, a path to healing begins. Chris Richards grew up in a small New England mill town, where life was tough and loyalty ran deep. At just 19, his world was shaken when a close friend was left permanently disabled by a devastating accident. At the same time, Chris’s father began to show troubling symptoms linked to his service in the Vietnam War—unseen wounds that would slowly unravel the man he once knew. The weight of watching two people he loved unravel under the strain of trauma and physical decline left deep scars—ones Chris carried silently into adulthood. For years, he buried his grief and fear, never imagining that one day, facing his own crisis, he would turn to their stories for strength. This powerful and moving memoir explores the enduring impact of trauma, the quiet power of resilience, and how ev...

  We live in a world that often demands emotional simplicity—be happy, stay strong, don’t overreact. But real emotions are anything but simple. They’re layered, tangled, and often inconvenient. They surprise us. They contradict each other. And when we try to avoid their complexity, we lose something essential: connection to ourselves. In  Learning to Feel, Second Edition , one man dares to stop simplifying—and starts  feeling . A trained psychologist, the author spent his life understanding emotional theory, but it wasn’t until he confronted his own emotional disconnection that he realized understanding isn't the same as living. His journey back into feeling wasn’t quick or easy. It involved peeling away layers of learned detachment, confronting discomfort, and finally learning to  experience  his emotions instead of just labeling them. Along the way, he discovered that the complexity he once tried to avoid was, in fact, the key to living fully and honestly. Thi...

  Introduction I grew up barefoot and suntanned on a farm in rural Acton, Maine. Now, basking in the sunshine of San Juan Bautista, California, 3,000 miles from those roots and 75 years beyond my time in New England, I find no singular thread defining my life. No grand design guided my path—only the constant pull of urgent voices asking, Can you come help us? And so, I went. I packed my bags, boarded planes, crossed borders, and stepped into roles I had never planned but never hesitated to fill. Unlike those who chase opportunity, I responded to it. I taught teachers in Brazil, rescued a dying child in Siberia, brokered school exchanges between Minsk (Belarus) and Portland (Oregon, USA), trained astronauts and cosmonauts in Houston (USA) and in Star City (Russia). I set up university translation programs in Moldova, guided Turkmen diplomats, advised Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Social Justice. Each place offered a distinct challenge, and I shaped myself around its needs, learning as...

  Unconditional love is often spoken of in soft tones and poetic phrases—as if it’s something simple, automatic, even easy. But if you’ve ever tried to love fully and freely, without expectation or self-protection, you know: it takes work. Real work. Inner work. The essence of unconditional love isn’t found in a single act of kindness. It’s revealed in our willingness to look within—to understand why we react the way we do, where our emotional triggers lie, and what parts of our past still shape the way we love in the present. That’s where Learning to Feel begins. This book is not about suppressing emotions or floating above them. It’s about entering the heart of them—discovering what is ours, what is borrowed, and what no longer serves us. As we do that, we gain something extraordinary: the power to choose how we feel and how we respond. And when we gain that choice, love changes. It becomes less about control, more about connection. Less about fear, more about freedom. We stop n...