Most of us have been taught to imagine growth as a straight line. We picture progress moving neatly forward, always upward, always advancing. But life rarely works that way. We stumble, we circle back, we repeat lessons we thought we had already learned. Gerald L. Deloney’s Gravity: The Story of Our Becoming reframes this reality with a powerful image: Becoming is not a line at all. It is a spiral.
The spiral matters because it helps us understand the nature of transformation. In a straight line, a setback feels like failure. If we are not constantly moving forward, we assume we are falling behind. But in a spiral, returning to familiar struggles does not mean starting over. It means revisiting them at a deeper level, carrying memory and experience with us. The spiral teaches that even when we circle back, we are not the same as before. We are moving through rhythms of renewal.
This is especially important in a world fractured by distortion. Supremacy, scarcity, and empire leave wounds that are not healed once and for all. They resurface in new ways, in new generations, in new challenges. The spiral model acknowledges this truth. Healing is not linear. It requires revisiting pain, reclaiming memory, and weaving restoration over and over again. That does not make the work meaningless; it makes it faithful.
Deloney points to rhythm as the guide within the spiral. Rhythm keeps us moving even when progress feels slow. The beat of the drum, the cadence of breath, the rituals of community—these are reminders that Becoming continues, that we are part of something larger than ourselves. Rhythm prevents us from getting lost in the illusion that we must always move upward. Instead, it keeps us grounded in cycles that honor both grief and growth.
Think about your own life. How many times have you returned to a lesson you thought you had mastered? How often have challenges resurfaced, demanding a deeper response? In a straight-line mindset, this might feel discouraging. But through the spiral, these moments become opportunities for restoration. Each turn of the spiral is both repetition and renewal, an invitation to coherence at another level.
The spiral also shifts how we see legacy. We are not leaving behind a single, finished story but contributing to an unfolding rhythm. Our actions ripple outward, circling into the lives of others, who will carry the rhythm further. Restoration is never complete, but it is always possible, because the spiral continues.
Gravity: The Story of Our Becoming invites us to embrace this spiral view of life. It reminds us that Becoming is not about reaching a final destination but about living faithfully in cycles of restoration. The straight line is empire’s illusion; the spiral is creation’s truth. And within that spiral, every step, forward, back, or sideways is part of the sacred rhythm of coherence.
Gravity: The Story of Our Becoming is available now on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, Draft2Digital, Kobo, Lulu, and IngramSpark.