As we smiled at the memory of our younger days, one of the women said, “I remember when I used to blast my music at my house. While I was cleaning, getting ready, or cooking, I would turn up the music, but I don’t do that anymore. Why did I stop?”

It was one of those A-ha moments that seemed simple but profound because it resonated with each of us in a jarring way.

It turned out that we had stopped turning up the music, and none of us knew why.

We started trying to understand what happened. We listen to music on our headphones, we watch Netflix, and we scroll on social media, but we’re not turning up our favorite tunes and having dance parties in the living room or sing like everyone is paying big bucks to see us perform.

We’re distracted

Why would we all stop doing something that brought us so much joy??

We are distracted.

I went to the symphony for the first time since the pandemic. I forgot how much I enjoyed live orchestras. The music is so captivating and calming.

As I looked around the audience, I noticed something very interesting. Hardly anyone was on their cellphones.

This particular performance targeted children, and none of the children in my immediate area were on devices. The children in my row listened to the music, asked questions, and clapped after every song. I began to look around our section, where there were several Young Adults. Nobody was texting or scrolling. I wasn’t surprised because the music was so engaging, and everyone was paying attention.

One of the main reasons we are not experiencing the simple joys we once did is because we are constantly distracted. We are all glued to our devices to monitor every notification and alert because we are fearful and anxious that we will miss something important.

We are missing something important: Simple joys like turning up the music or enjoying the moment.

We must be intentional about not forgetting the simple pleasures that once brought us so much joy.

We need to unplug from our devices and take advantage of moments of beauty or moments of just being.

We must remember that we don’t need to know everything about everybody at every moment because we don’t have the capacity and it’s distracting us from our lives.

We need to turn up the music again.