Usually I enjoy the sound of rain.

So this time I couldn’t figure out what exactly was bothering me so much about the winds and the downpour.

After a few minutes I finally understood.

It’s the alarm clock.

We had purchased one of those old-fashioned manual ticking alarm clocks with the bells on top that sound like a fire drill so we can’t possibly sleep through it. The hi-tech digital ones aren’t as effective.

So really what happens is that I’ve now programmed myself to actually wake up three minutes before that sound because it’s so frightening. But the loud ticking goes on.

So when I was trying to tune into the sound of the rain it was being overshadowed by the ticking and the competition for attention was a headache instead of relaxing.

I put the clock in the closet under a pile of shirts.

This is exactly what I learned this past week.

Focus.

How we can focus on something and not even know it and how it can actually consume our entire being without our being aware of it.

A woman called me who cried about how she doesn’t have anything and now she needs a water heater for Shabbos and even that she doesn’t allow herself.

She goes on to describe how her hot plate doesn’t really work and it’s missing a leg and the water urn she usually puts on it doesn’t really heat up on the hot plate but even so at least it’s a little hot but now with older children there’s not enough room for the water and the food.

“Do you have anything to buy a hot water urn with?” I ask.

“I do” she says. “But I feel guilty spending the money because we need it for so many other things. But it’s cold out and on Shabbos I feel we need hot water.”

“So doesn’t Hashem pay for chickens and fish in honor of the Shabbos?” I say.

She gets it.

That very day she goes out to buy the urn. Calls a rav who says it doesn’t need to be toiveled sets it up and fills it.

She calls a few minutes before Shabbos.

“You can’t believe how gorgeous this thing is. It’s truly magnificent. I never saw anything so beautiful. I just keep looking at it and thinking how good Hashem is for giving me this beautiful thing.”

“It’s going to change your life” I say. And I meant it. Because now she could focus on this beautiful new gift and feel those feelings of I’m deserving. And I gave to myself and trusted that Hashem would pay me back.

These thoughts instead of those from looking at the crooked hot plate and drinking lukewarm water and the “I’m not worth anything and Hashem doesn’t love me” get replaced or refocused just like the rain becomes louder than the ticking clock.

But when you think about it it sounds utterly ridiculous. A little urn or a little ticking can change your whole mind-set?

The other week I got a pair of glasses. And when I put them on I saw things I’d never seen before.

What’s so interesting is that I can’t believe these little pieces of glass or plastic in this case changes my entire outlook on the world.

A tiny not even one-centimeter thick film over the eye and the whole world is different?

Same thing goes for thoughts. One little thought can cloud an entire brain of thoughts.

I can focus on that or this. Both could be equally true and real like the ticking clock and the rain are both sounds as real as the other. But it’s in my hands to choose which one overpowers the other.

On Shabbos I sometimes set the table with paper goods but I also put out the crystal wine goblets so that everyone’s attention is pulled to the goblets and away from the paper plates. It works.

This is the same thing and probably everyone knows this already but for me this week it came into focus.