I’ve always liked drums. I remember being seven or eight years old in Rhode Island. Down the street from us was a family with a lot of kids, five at least. Some of the older ones used to baby sit my sister and I. We were over at there house one Saturday morning and they had a drum kit in the basement. I really wanted to play it: to hit the cymbals, thump the bass drum, bang on the snare. Unfortunately someone in the house was asleep so I never got to do it. Apparently my desire to play drums continued to manifest itself to the point where even Amy noticed. One year for Valentine’s Day, she bought me drum lessons, something I’d never have done for myself. I nervously met my drum instructor, Scott Musick from the band The Call, and we sat down and had a basic lesson. It was everything I hoped it would be and I continued on for a few years. Amy even took lessons and had fun with it. Later I started drumming for the church in the worship service, marking my transition as a real drummer.

One thing I love to do is play music on my headphones and drum along with it. It helps stretch me musically and it lets me indulge in rock star fantasies. When I stated taking drum lessons, I began to focus on the different instruments in any song I listened to. Rather than hearing the song as a whole, I’d focus on the drums or the guitar. I found it amazing, especially on drums and bass, that often, there was an entirely different beat being played than what the guitars and vocals played. I learned that this is the rhythm section of the song, but at the time it was an amazing discovery. All along, there was this whole other aspect of a song that I was subconsciously hearing but until I focused on it, I never even knew it was there.

 A second musical revelation I had was that often, the way I thought a song went was different than the way it really went when I focused on it. Often what I’d think was a complicated pattern, turned out to be much simpler. In essence, my mind inserted extra beats into the rhythm and it wasn’t until I really looked at it, that I saw what was actually there.

 I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this. Often in life we just glance around at things. We grab our first impression and then run with it. However, if we took the time to really focus on something, and I’m talking minutes not hours, we discover a whole new aspect. This is especially true about people. The more you get to know them, the deeper they become. We all have that surface identification of ourselves and our personalities, but everyone is so much deeper than that if we take the time to look.

 So during lunch today, take a moment to focus on something, anything really. See what has always been in front of you but you’ve never taken the time to notice. Listen intently, look closely, and smell deeply. The world around you is amazing and all it takes is a little focus to discover it.