Spirituality: A Spot of Grit

Rev Leo Booth
Unity minister, published author and conference speaker

We often forget that it is that little tiny bit of grit that is needed to create a pearl. And I’m suggesting that recovery, healing, surrender is that essential piece of grit that will eventually affirm sobriety or “the good life.”

Maybe you’ve never thought of yourself as that little bit of grit or more precisely having within you that spot of grit that truly makes all the difference.

It is always a challenge to talk about spirituality because it usually takes us into the ‘poetic’ aspects of life. It’s a little like talking about God, words can never do justice to what we want to say, our feelings concerning the divine often become restricted when we attempt to put them into words. Spirituality faces a similar challenge.

A definition of spirituality includes words like energy, breath, life and we are forced to explain these words by giving examples:

• A spiritual person exudes a positive energy that radiates love and generosity.
• It is said in scripture that God breathed into the first humans and gave something of himself in the creation of life.
• A recovering person experiences a spiritual awakening that affirms life.

For years I’ve known that the spiritual life necessarily involves the poetic and the challenge for any writer is to use examples that clearly explain what they are intending to say.

This brings me back to a spot of grit. The example of a pearl is apposite because it is considered a gem of beauty and I’m suggesting that this is what recovery, healing, sobriety looks like. Our lives are slowly changed into being something wonderful, wholesome, and good in every sense, indeed some would say a miracle, and it comes from what I’m calling a spot of grit.

What is the grit? Well, again this is poetic-speak, a metaphor for the moment we accept that we need to change a behavior that is killing us. It is that point of surrender when we give up fighting, we give up denying, we give up the pretence of suggesting that everything is okay. All this is what I’m calling a spot of grit; it is the beginning of the process of healing.

As many of you know, I speak at Conferences throughout the United States, always seeking to explain spirituality in the process of healing. In January I will be a keynote speaker for the NOVA Conference in Dallas (January 22nd) and at the US Journal Conference in Clearwater, Florida (January 12th – 14th) discussing how, for me, addiction becomes a part of the grit that, when confronted, can lead to happiness and peace. Please call my office for more information at 1 (800) 284.2804.

When I think about my life today in recovery, I’m so aware that I’m living a charmed existence; a pearl. And I know I’m not the only one. I hear from people who, because of recovery, are able to live the good life. They are falling in love, getting married, enjoying financial security, going back to school, planning trips, exploring other countries and taking care of their health. Many have returned to church, found a God or Higher Power that accepts and loves them, more importantly, they are enjoying an adventure into spirituality.

It must be interesting for you to consider that a part of our make-up involves a spot of grit but I want you to hold the vision of the emerging pearl. The message is clear: you are exquisite!