How did a choir director, meditation teacher, and bagel maker go from a quiet, content life in Lincoln, Nebraska to a job as a Visiting Professor in Shepherdstown, West Virginia? First, let me dispel the incorrect notion that meditation breeds apathy and/or passivity. While the Buddha noted that attachment was a primary cause of human […]
Wellness
Midweek Meditation: Putting the Practice into Practice (Part I)
As the summer draws to a close, so, too, does my six-part series on mindfulness and meditation. I have enjoyed putting my thoughts about meditation into words, and I hope you have found my posts to be thought provoking and inspiring. Moving forward, I’ll be blogging once a month, a “Monthly Meditation,” so this last […]
Midweek Meditation: the Power of the Pause
Charles Bruffy is one of my favorite conductors (and people). I’ve known Charles since 2008 when I attended the Westminster Conducting Institute and sang Duruflé’s Requiem with him. Since then, I’ve observed him conduct professional groups, collegiate groups, church choirs, and high school festivals, and watched him work with conductors in masterclass settings. I’m proud […]
Midweek Meditation: Visiting Professor of Impermanence
The concept of impermanence is one of the foundational principles of Buddhism. The idea of impermanence can be summarized in the statement, “Everything changes, and nothing lasts forever.” Acceptance of this premise may lead one to enlightenment, while denying it is considered one of the primary causes of human suffering. In my academic career, for […]
Midweek Meditation: Five Minutes to Focus
Midweek Meditation: Five Minutes to Focus by Steve Grives In this entry, I’ll take you through a guided meditation that I’ve developed for use with choral ensembles. While my meditation practice is a spiritual practice, one designed to cultivate both wisdom and compassion, the basic tenets of mindfulness meditation can be used to build life […]
Midweek Meditation: The Inner Critic
In my previous blog post, I wrote a bit about perfectionism in the context of my career as a teacher/conductor. I recalled conducting a concert and mentioned that as I was conducting this performance, an inner voice was assessing the concert in real time. As I reflected on this, I realized that this voice was […]