H_dd_n Bl_ss_ngs
“Edgar!” I yelled.
My roommate continued frowning at his textbook, obviously oblivious to my call.
“EDGAR!” I yelled again, making sure to increase my volume. He looked in my direction – he had finally heard me over the loud hip hop music emanating from the room next door. “Should we do something about the noise?!”
He shouted a reply. His words were muffled by the roar of some rapper “busting” a rhyme, but the confused look on his face told me that he had not heard what I said. Just as I was about to repeat the question, the rapper was replaced with heavy bass beats. The wall vibrated and my teeth rattled with every beat. I looked at Edgar and he looked at me. We both knew that we had a problem.
My neighbors like to play music. No – that’s an understatement. My neighbors like to BLAST music. I’ve been patient over the last few weeks, trying to understand that the guys next doors were young adults experimenting with the boundaries of their newfound freedom, but as the music got louder, my patience got weaker.
Straying away from music for a moment, have you ever heard the stories about people who are happy even though they know that death is near? I’ve heard many, and after the speaker at worship told us another one, I went back to my room thinking about my attitude. Quiet contemplation led me to conclude that my attitude could use a little work but was fine overall. I gave myself a pat on the back and was about to go back to work when a techno beat started from next door. Before I could stop myself, a few impure thoughts raced through my mind, giving me a glimpse of my real attitude.
I decided right there and then that I needed to change my perception of certain things – starting with the music. I paced back and forth (involuntarily marching to the beat of the music) trying to figure out how I could achieve this change.
“A positive attitude comes from thinking positively, right?” I asked myself.
“Right,” I answered.
“Okay, so I should focus on the positives of music playing all the time.”
“Fine… fine…” I was skeptical. “But what are the positives of music playing all the time?”
“I don’t know. It’s free entertainment…?”
“Yeah, but it stops you from focusing on your work.”
“Okay, but –”
“And it keeps you up at night.”
“Yeah, but –”
“And it woke you up that one time.”
“Aha!”
“What?”
“The music woke me up! What would have happened otherwise?”
“…You would have been late for class.”
“Yeah! And I would have missed church that other time!”
“You can’t seriously think that –”
“Oh! And covering my ears makes it easier to stay focused when I read my notes!”
“That has nothing to do with –”
“Not to mention I’ve gotten a lot more homework done since I started going to the library to get away from the noise!”
As the voice of negativity was slowly cancelled out, I began to realize that the music, though annoying, was not a curse but a hidden blessing. The ordeal got me thinking about the all the annoyances in life that can be a blessing in disguise. The problem is that we’re so used to looking for the bad in everything, that we often overlook the good. I think that instead of being bitter about everything, we should all stop, think positively, and try to find those hidden blessings.