MSI Press Blog

  Today's meditation from  Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living   by Dr. Frederic Craigie: -41-   The effort to bring something new and meaningful into the world – whether in the arts, the kitchen or the marketplace—is exactly what generates the sense of meaning and fulfillment for which so many of us yearn so deeply.   Peter Korn   In the range of 65,000 years ago, someone wandered into a network of caves in what is now Spain, finding a suitable wall surface and inscribing images of animals and geometric designs. In ever-unfolding fields of archaeology and cultural anthropology, these images presently claim title to being the oldest examples of visual arts yet discovered. They were made by Neanderthals, long before modern humans appeared on the scene, giving rise to fresh theories about the sophistication of what we have long considered to be barrel-chested, dim-witted brutes. In the following millennia, people arou...

  Today's meditation from  Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living   by Dr. Frederic Craigie. -20-   The quality of one's life depends on the quality of attention. Whatever you pay attention to will grow more important in your life. Deepak Chopra   Achieving artistic and financial success by the early 1890s, Claude Monet purchased his home in Giverny, France and set to work developing a landscape that would inspire his painting in the last 30 years of his life. He received permission from local authorities to divert water from the Epte River to create a pond for cultivating water lilies. Monet spent long hours in his gardens, tending to them, and joyfully observing the constant unfolding of light, colors, and texture. He commented on his attention to his lily pond:   It took me a while to understand my water lilies. I cultivated them without thinking about painting them. A landscape doesn’t captivate you in just one da...

  Today's meditation from  Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living   by Dr. Frederic Craigie. -18-   Like many academics, I spent my young adult years postponing many of the small things that I knew would make me happy, including reading novels for pleasure, learning to cook, taking a photography class, and joining a gym. I would do all of these things when I had time—when I finished school, when I had a job, when I was awarded tenure, and so on. I was fortunate enough to realize that I would never have time unless I made the time. And then the rest of my life began. Christopher Peterson   When I met him, Tim was gingerly making his way back from a very serious heart attack. He had some specific ongoing deficits—I remember him talking particularly about diminished ability to write fluently—but mainly, he suffered from loss of stamina, chronic pain, and the constant shadow of his uncertain long-term future. His st...