“When we attempt to ‘define’ spirituality, we discover not its limits, but our own.” ~ Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketchum, The Spirituality of Imperfection.

Religion concerns itself with boundaries: belief against unbelief, insiders against outsiders, church and state, etc.

If I try to define spirituality, I can refer only to my own incompleteness and am left with holes, cracks, and absences.

There is a saying found in recovery circles, “Religion is for those who are afraid of going to hell; spirituality is for those who have been there.” The popularity of this saying speaks to the shared experience of people in recovery from addiction. It contains both the fact of literal hell of active addiction and in the same breath the gift of release from that hell. It says ‘we’ve been there alone and we aren’t alone anymore‘.

We don’t need to define spirituality because we find it in sitting in circles and sharing our experiences and hope. We all have an arc of descent to a bottom, then a turning point, then an ascent into a better way of life. When I am down, your story gives me hope; if I am a little too comfortable in my recovery, your story reminds me that I am one slip away from my complete undoing.

Spirituality is the medium in which our days dissolve into journey and our journey is woven into story.