Which Beat Do You Walk To In Life ?

Take a look at the following scene. Just watch it for a moment. Seems like a pretty average undramatic scene. But now, let's watch the exact same footage again, but this time with different music. Interesting, isn't it? A moment ago, this felt peaceful, and now it feels unsettling. Almost like something terrible is about to happen. But nothing changed. The people didn't change. The scenery didn't change. The story didn't change. Only the music changed. Now, let's try it one more time. Suddenly, it feels hopeful and warm, almost beautiful, the exact same scene, the exact same people, the exact same reality. All I did was change the soundtrack. And you get a totally different experience. I think many of us spend years waiting for our lives to change. And we say things like, "If only I had more money, or if only I was married already, or if only my kids listened." Or, "If only I had a different job." or if only I lived somewhere else or had a different parents went to a different school, had a different rve. And there's no doubt sometimes life really does need to change. But I wonder how often the problem isn't the scene. Rather, it's the background music behind the scene. Maybe you're walking through your movie of life to the wrong soundtrack. And if you would change the background music, the entire scene would change. You can have two people standing in the exact same place, in the exact same neighborhood, with the exact same challenges, with the exact same job and the same bank account, and one person hears violins of death, and the other person hears saxophones playing smooth jazz. One person hears tragedy and the other person hears possibility. One person hears, "My life is falling apart." And the other hears, "Hashem is writing a story. One hears a funeral march and the others hear the upbeat soundtrack of growth. Some people are so determined to hear sand music in their life that they can turn a paradise into a prison. Look at this scene. Sunshine, ocean, beauty, freedom. And yet with the wrong soundtrack, it feels lonely and emptying and depressing. And then there are people who can walk through places like this and somehow still hear upbeat music. Not because they're blind, not because they're naive, not because their lives are easy, but because they refuse to surrender the soundtrack of their soul to circumstances. A person's inner world very much determines how he experiences the outer one. The world is consistently trying to hound us a soundtrack. A soundtrack of fear, a soundtrack of jealousy, a soundtrack of anger and anxiety and resentment. And if we're not careful, we'll spend our entire lives listening to it. But we don't have to because one of the greatest gifts Hashem gave us is the ability to choose what music plays inside of our heads. We can choose the music of gratitude, the music of amuna, the music of purpose, the music of perspective, the music of hope. So before you ask Hashem to change the scenery of your life, ask yourself, what music am I listening to? Because more often than not, that makes all the difference.