Billy Coffey
Billy Coffey

The cosmic dance

August 4, 2010  

image courtesy of photobucket.com

image courtesy of photobucket.com

What I’ve been thinking lately:

My little town isn’t so little anymore. Its population has boomed in the last twenty years from about three thousand to right around ten thousand people. The old two-lane road is now four. The lone stoplight we used to have has somehow given birth to five more. And there seems to always be a new subdivision being built in an old cornfield.

Ask the business owners, and they’ll say all this growth is a good thing. Ask the old timers, and they’ll tell you that it isn’t so good. The town’s growing, they say, but the community is shrinking. There’s a difference, and it’s a big one. I used to have to drive down Main Street with my hand perpetually stuck in the wave position. Not so much anymore. There are a lot of people I don’t know. Which means you can be surrounded by people and still feel lonely sometimes.

Many have come from the south and west in search of work, but most have come from the north. That fact alone was cause for concern for a lot of people here, those old in both age and ways and who still smart from the last time the Yankees invaded. But those times are over. These new Yankees do not have violence on their minds, but retirement. They’re tired of the cities and the noise. They want the peace and quiet of the country.

So they come. They buy their houses and settle in with the expressed purpose to slow down and take things easier. To force their lives not to be so hectic. “We’re always moving,” one of them told me the other day. “It’s just this constant state of having to do something. We hated it. So we came here. We just wanted to slow down and stop.”

I tried not to smile, but I did anyway.

This once-sleepy town is no Nirvana. It offers much, but not stoppage. Because the fact of life is that it’s busy and we’re always moving.

It doesn’t seem fair, really. As children, all we want is to go. Doesn’t matter to where or for what or how long, just as long as it’s somewhere. But the years wear on us. There are responsibilities. There is work and family and goals and dreams and we’re in the middle of it all, running. Moving. We long to slow down and stop not because we’re lazy, but because we’re tired. And because at some point we begin wondering if this is really all life has to offer, just more moving and more doing and never any rest.

I’ve wondered that myself lately. And I think that maybe the answer to that is no. Maybe that’s all life is. Movement.

I read the other day that the Earth spins on its axis every twenty-four hours at a speed of 1,000 mph. Pretty fast, isn’t it? Not as fast as this planet’s speed around the Sun, though. That’s 66,000 mph. So technically speaking, that means even though you think you’re sitting still and reading this right on the other side of a computer screen, you’ve traveled six hundred miles since you began reading this paragraph.

No wonder we’re always so tired.

I suppose that from the universe’s standpoint, not only is there not much we can do about our constant moving, we should be thankful there isn’t. Moving means life, and life continuing. It means that the Earth spins and the sun shines and all is well. It means that the cosmic dance continues unfettered.

Maybe that’s how we should look at our hectic lives. Because no matter who we are, it’s hard to slow down. Those precious moments of rest and nothingness are precious because they’re so few. I think that’s how it should be.

We can’t help but to move, but we can help how we move.

We can make sure our comings and goings are ordained by God Himself, that our actions, however small, are made as a prayer to Him and a help to others.

Yes. That’s it. That’s what we need.

Not less moving, but better moving.

That the cosmic dance continues unfettered.

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Filed under: God, faith
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Comments

  • http://thoughtsthatmove.blogspot.com/ Wendy

    Ah, to move better. To move fluidly with Jesus. My website URL testifies to my being a fan of movement.

    Great post.
    ~ Wendy

  • http://topsy.com/www.billycoffey.com/2010/08/the-cosmic-dance/?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L2 Tweets that mention The cosmic dance : Billy Coffey — Topsy.com

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Glynn Young, Helenatrandom. Helenatrandom said: The cosmic dance – http://www.billycoffey.com/2010/08/the-cosmic-dance/ [...]

  • http://www.asgoodadayasany.wordpress.com Marilyn Yocum

    “We can’t help but to move, but we can help how we move.”
    Your post reminds me when we used to put an album on the turntable and let it spin, waiting for the song we wanted to dance to, then finding it was on a different album. :-) Thanks for the reminder about choices. It is easy to get carried away, dancing to the tune playing on others’ turntables.

  • http://www.joannesher.com Joanne Sher

    Oh so profound. Great stuff as always, Billy. Will aim to move well.

  • http://www.pridelandsmommy.blogspot.com *~Michelle~*

    Great post……ahhhh, the quest for being still enough to hear what God has planned for us, and then carrying it out.

    “I used to have to drive down Main Street with my hand perpetually stuck in the wave position.”

    OK, so I did get a visual of you, sitting in a convertible doing the parade wave……and I am pretty sure with the sure success of your writing…..you will be doing that often.

  • http://www.freakinangels.blogspot.com Kim S

    Great post. Made me think of a good book by Kirk Byron Jones titled Addicted to Hurry: Spiritual Strategies for Slowing Down. Recommended ready for the hurrying among us! http://www.amazon.com/Addicted-Hurry-Spiritual-Strategies-Slowing/dp/0817014454/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280925262&sr=8-1

  • http://buzzbyannies.blogspot.com Annie K

    Sounds like my town only it was people from that state south of Oregon who invaded. Thankfully I can still escape just up the road to the woods.

  • http://hisfirefly.blogspot.com HisFireFly

    “We can make sure our comings and goings are ordained by God Himself,”

    You echoed the prayer of my heart, Billy. I want to hear what He desires.. and agree instead of telling Him what I desire and asking for His stamp of approval.

  • http://writingwithoutpaper.blogspot.com Maureen

    I was down in your parts a few Saturdays ago. To go out that way used to be a treat, to feel oneself in “country”. The push “out there” has taken an area I loved and turned it into big houses and shopping malls and restaurants that stretch all the way to Charlottesville. What used to be a one-stop-light and free all the way is no more. The thing is, it isn’t as if the city has come to the country. It hasn’t.

    Excellent post.

  • http://duane-scott.net/ Duane Scott

    I love how God made everyone of us a part of that cosmic dance.

    Because He is a God who moves.

    He moves in the hearts of His children.
    He moves in the dark allies of sin-filled cities.
    He moves in all our lives.

    Because movement is life. And God is life.

    So, don’t mind me over here.

    I’m just doin’ a little tango.

    -DS

  • http://www.christianmamasguide.com Erin MacPherson

    Hi Billy! Thanks for coming by my blog… and I’m glad I found my way back to yours. Your writing is so beautiful… makes me want to read your book (I’ll pick it up!). Anyway, I also found writing the proposal MUCH harder than actually writing the book. The proposal was my one chance to actually SELL the book… but once it was sold and I knew they believed in my project, writing the book came easy.

  • http://www.kellylangnersauer.com/ Kelly Langner Sauer

    I know you’re a good writer. You make me want to read every word – they are all essential for getting to the end of your post – and the end is essential too.

    I love your life-observations.

  • http://aspiretoleadaquietlife.blogspot.com A Simple Country Girl

    So you are saying that the wind blowing through my hair way up on the edge of a cliff is really the earth spinning at 1,000 mph, huh? No wonder I am afraid of heights.

    Perhaps we should just roll down our collective windows and stick our faces full in the breeze, smiling and enjoying the ride, like a tail-waggin’ dog loving the ride while his master drives.

    Blessings.

  • http://splittergewitter.blogspot.com Claudia

    first time on your blog – and thoroughly enjoyed your cosmic dance
    just today i thought about how worn out i feel – and what you write speaks to me…not less moving, but better moving…
    nice to meet you
    claudia

  • http://www.endlessimpact.com jasonS

    Great perspective Billy. I’ve had thoughts like this when a fly gets in the car. We travel 55-70 MPH, but this fly has no idea that it’s traveling more in a few minutes than it could in its entire life on its own. Flipside is, it doesn’t understand or care. These are the philosophical thoughts that roll around my brain. I know you’re better for having heard them. And for that I say “you’re welcome.” :)

  • http://soulfari.blogspot.com/ Jay Cookingham

    This part of the Cosmic Dance I like…

    For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Acts 17:28

    Great as usual bro’ Thanks for sharing you thoughts!

  • http://conniearnold.blogspot.com/ Connie Arnold

    Great post, Billy! I can relate to the small town changing as it grows, grew up in a tiny one myself. I like the idea of better movement and the cosmic dance. Very descriptive, interesting thoughts. Hopefully in all this movement we are continually moving closer to the Lord.

  • Ralene

    Excellent post, Billy. I’m not a small-town girl, but I’ve felt that need sometime…to get away from it all, slow down. You make a good point on how we only have control on how we move. I love your insights. :)

  • http://thinkingtoodeeply.blogspot.com Karin

    Love your thoughts and the way you express yourself. Enjoy all the comments as well!

  • http://www.jennifervdavis.com Jennifer Davis

    As usual, so well-written and so profound. I’ve always heard people instruct us to take time to slow down, but maybe you’re right. We can’t. We’re not supposed to, but what we do needs to have meaning, and that meaning can come from no one but God. Thanks for sharing your insight.

  • http://whiteplatonicdreams.blogspot.com/ T. Anne

    Beautiful. I feel like I’m spinning so fast with all I do during the day, I’m downright dizzy. SOmetimes the only move I want to make is to the bed for a nice long nap.

  • http://sandraheskaking.com Sandra Heska King

    Only God can keep us upright on a spinning ball.

  • http://jasonpauljones.wordpress.com Jason Jones

    good stuff, as usual, Billy. Enjoyed it. Spoke just last week with someone about the two biggest lies out there …. 1) that life will eventually slow down … that someday, you’ll have more TIME …. and 2) that more is better.

    Thing is, as I’ve figured out these last several years since having kids, life doesn’t EVER slow down. In fact, it’s the opposite. As I get older, it SPEEDS UP. I get busier. The years fly by. Milestone after milestone passes us by and if we’re not careful, we’re going to look up one day and have missed the whole shindig, waiting. And for what? For more time, for more money, for that job, or that house or …. know what I mean?

    Anyhow … as always, enjoyed it.

  • http://heathersunseri.blogspot.com Heather Sunseri

    I needed this post today, Billy! I long for less moving, but I think you’re right. Since I probably will not be slowing down anytime in the forseeable future, I need to concentrate on “better” moving. Move with purpose! Thanks!!

  • http://joyce-fromthissideofthepond.blogspot.com Joyce

    Better moving…I like that!

  • http://angiemizzell.com Angie Mizzell

    I’m searching for the like button. In trying to think of a comment for this one, all I have is, “Yes. What he said.” :)

  • http://www.revbillcook.wordpress.com Bill Cook

    Well written. I appreciate your insights. – Bill

  • http://lindaspatchworkquilt.blogspot.com/ Linda

    This is so good – so filled with wisdom and truth. I think perhaps it is the moving for moving sake that is so wearing. Moving with purpose, with Godly purpose is what fulfills. But even then – there is a need for a time of rest. I am always looking for that perfect balance.

  • http://verymuchlater.com jake

    We’ll rest when we’re dead, right? I’m not even old enough to complain about always being tired, but I am. I schedule myself to the point of having no margin of time left to “screw around” and relax. . . because when I do have that time, I don’t know what to do with myself. Oh well, right?

    and PS– I’d never move to a small town. Eew. :)