The Music Hidden in the Grooves of our Life
Have you ever played music on a Record Player? The modern clear digital sound is amazing… but there’s just something about hearing the scratching hiss of an old 33 lp making music in your den.
There is something astonishing about an old vinyl record.
I have an old record player in my study. It was given to me as a gift when I was in High School. I take great pleasure when I listen to it.
When I played it the other night… it got me thinking. I took an old Hall & Oats 45 off the turn table – “Privat Eyes” was my first real record given to me by my sister Trina… I looked closely at it and was amazed at what I began to wonder.
At first glance, a vinyl record looks simple. A flat black disc. A faint spiral etched into its surface. Nothing flashy. Nothing digital. And yet, when you lower the needle and the platter begins to spin, a voice rises from silence. A guitar sings. A symphony swells. Emotion fills the room.
How does that happen?
Vinyl records work by storing sound as physical information. When a song is recorded, sound waves are translated into motion. That motion carves a spiral groove into a master disc. Those grooves are not decorative. They are precise. Tiny ridges, dips, and curves correspond exactly to pitch, volume, and rhythm.
When the record is played, a stylus rides through those grooves. As it moves, it vibrates in the same pattern as the original sound. Those vibrations travel through the cartridge, are converted into an electrical signal, amplified, and then pushed through speakers as music.
In short, vinyl is a mechanical memory of sound. The grooves are a physical map of music. The needle reads that map and brings it back to life.
Pause there for a moment.
A song exists as carved plastic. A voice is hidden in a spiral. Music lives in microscopic vibrations waiting to be awakened… If this isn’t a testament to modern marvels I don’t know what is…
That alone should unsettle our assumptions about reality.
Because if sound can be stored invisibly in grooves too small to notice, what else is real that we routinely overlook?
The Unseen World Beneath the Surface
We tend to trust what we can see, touch, and measure with our five senses. But science has been steadily humbling that confidence for centuries.
At the molecular level, solid objects are mostly empty space. What feels firm is actually energy held in structure. At the atomic level, particles behave more like probabilities than objects. At the quantum level, observation itself changes outcomes.
We live in a universe where vibration is foundational. Sound is vibration. Light is vibration. Even matter, at its deepest level, hums with motion.
Nikola Tesla once said that if you want to understand the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration. Long before modern instruments confirmed it, he sensed that reality is far more dynamic and layered than appearances suggest.
Consider this. You cannot see radio waves, yet they pass through your body constantly. You cannot see Wi Fi signals, yet they carry information that shapes your work, relationships, and decisions. You cannot see gravity, yet it governs every step you take.
The most powerful forces in your life are largely invisible.
Just like the music in a vinyl groove.
Why Old Technology Still Fascinates Us
Have you ever wondered why vinyl records, an outdated technology by modern standards, still captivate us?
Perhaps it is because vinyl reminds us that reality is not only digital and abstract. It is embodied. It has texture. It has depth.
There is something grounding about knowing that a song is physically there. That music is not just data floating in the cloud, but a trace etched into matter itself.
It invites better questions.
What else carries meaning in ways we do not yet understand?
What information is embedded in creation, waiting to be read?
What truths are present but require the right instrument to reveal them?
Layers Upon Layers of Splendor
Scripture speaks directly to this humility.
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever.” Deuteronomy 29:29.
That verse does not dismiss knowledge. It frames it. There are revealed things, and there are hidden things. Discovery is real, but mystery remains.
God is not stingy with wonder. He is extravagant.
For most of human history, the stars were pinpricks of light. They were always there. Galaxies spiraled. Nebulae burned with color. Light traveled across billions of years. Humanity simply lacked the tools to see it.
Now we peer into deep space and are stunned by what has always existed.
What else surrounds us right now that we have no language or instrument to perceive?
What patterns exist in space, time, and vibration that are part of God’s design, still waiting for discovery?
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
The same layered complexity applies to us.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Not only biologically, but emotionally, relationally, and spiritually.
A butterfly navigates thousands of miles with no map.
An eagle sees distances the human eye cannot comprehend.
A mother recognizes her child’s cry in a crowded room.
Two people fall in love and cannot fully explain why.
Meaning, beauty, intuition, conscience, longing, awe. These are not illusions. They are signals.
As I often tell my clients, “What you feel is not always the full truth, but it is often pointing toward one.”
Love, courage, conviction, and calling cannot be weighed or photographed. Yet they shape civilizations and lives.
Just like music cannot be seen, but can move you to tears.
Reading the Grooves of Creation
A vinyl record does not shout its secrets. You have to place the needle carefully. You have to slow down. You have to listen.
Creation is much the same.
There are grooves everywhere. Patterns. Signals. Invitations to wonder.
The problem is not that there is no evidence of deeper reality. The problem is that we are often too distracted to notice it.
Science keeps pulling back layers. Faith reminds us there will always be more layers to pull back.
And somewhere between the groove and the song, between vibration and meaning, between the seen and unseen, we are invited to humility.
Because if music can live quietly in plastic, waiting for the right touch to bring it to life, perhaps truth itself is doing the same.
The question is not whether there is more to reality than what we can see.
The question is whether we are willing to listen.
When the Grooves Became Personal
This is not just an idea that lives on a page for me. It has shaped my life.
Years ago, I realized that much of what drives our suffering happens below the surface. Stress, fear, shame, identity confusion, exhaustion. These are not random. They are signals. Vibrations in the soul, telling us something is misaligned.
Once I began to understand that there is more happening beneath awareness than we can consciously track, my work as a coach changed forever. I stopped treating people like problems to be fixed and started listening for the grooves in their lives.
I have watched this truth quietly save careers, marriages, and lives.
I worked with an NFL executive who looked like the picture of success. Power, influence, resources. Yet privately, the pressure was crushing him. He was exhausted, anxious, and one bad season away from walking away from the career he had dreamed about since childhood. What he could not see at first was that his nervous system was screaming for order, meaning, and margin. Once we slowed down and learned to read what was happening beneath the surface, everything changed. He did not quit. He recalibrated. He reclaimed joy, clarity, and leadership from a deeper place.
I coached a rising UFC star who had achieved what most men only fantasize about. Fame came fast. Expectations came faster. Behind the bravado was imposter syndrome and the constant fear of being exposed as not enough. We worked beneath the visible performance and into identity. Once he understood that his worth was not tied to applause or outcomes, his confidence stabilized. His fighting improved. His life found footing.
I walked alongside a mother suffering with postpartum distress. She felt broken, ashamed, and terrified by thoughts she did not recognize as her own. The world told her to push through and be grateful. Instead, we listened carefully to what her body and soul were communicating. What emerged was not weakness, but exhaustion and unmet support. As understanding replaced judgment, healing followed. She did not just survive. She came back to herself.
In every case, the breakthrough did not come from forcing change. It came from learning to read what was already there.
Just like music in a vinyl groove.
The evidence of deeper reality is not abstract. It is personal. It is relational. It is lived.
And if any part of this resonates with you, if you sense that something beneath the surface of your life is asking to be heard, you are not alone.
You do not need to stay overwhelmed.
You do not need to white knuckle success.
You do not need to figure it out by yourself.
My coaching team and I specialize in helping people read the grooves of their lives with clarity, courage, and compassion. We help leaders, athletes, parents, and professionals slow down enough to listen, recalibrate, and level up in sustainable ways.
There is more to your story than what you can currently see.
The question now is whether you are ready to listen.