Service is Showing Up Our Christmas Day marathon took place at an addiction resource center from 10 a.m. until noon. Among the eight people in attendance was my sister. It was her second OA meeting. I was grateful for the opportunity to practice the Twelfth Step by sharing this program with a newcomer. The leaders of the meeting focused on daily readings from OA … Read More
Our Small But Mighty IDEA Our IDEA celebration last year was a small but mighty gathering of recovering compulsive eaters, both newcomers and long timers. At 11:30 a.m. PST, we stood in a circle and turned to the person next to us, held his or her hand, and said, “I put my hand in yours, and together we can do what we could never do … Read More
Big-Picture Thinking As I was trying to figure out this whole “Higher Power” thing, I found myself trying to reconcile the many different religious beliefs in the world, wondering who was right. As I pondered, the image came to me of very large jigsaw puzzle of “God.” Each of us holds a piece of that puzzle. I might look at my piece … Read More
Overgreeters Anonymous My first region convention was quite an adventure. I was nervous and apprehensive but knew I needed to volunteer for service, so I volunteered to be a greeter for the first evening. My thought process was that it would be hard to mess up that job. I reported on time for my service and found I was partnered with a … Read More
OA Shorts Dear Mr. Merriam, dear Mr. Webster, I write to you as a humble requester. I propose a new spelling of a certain word; The change would be seen but would not be heard. The word in question is now spelled “serenity.” I suggest changing it instead to “surrenity.” If one “surrenders” using “humility,” One can achieve a sense of tranquility: … Read More
Sponsorship I reach out my palm and you touch my heart. Together we make a valiant start. We guard against any halfway measure As we embark on this journey together. We’re raising the banner for spiritual living, Changing our actions from taking to giving. Our hands and our minds retreat from the fridge; The past becomes water under the bridge. Taking … Read More
All Human I was enjoying a new relationship with a sponsor, and everything seemed to be going very well. I was preparing to do Step Five when it occurred to me that I might feel more comfortable doing this Step with a different person, someone other than my sponsor. I mentioned this to my sponsor in an email, but something I said (I may never … Read More
Prayers Answered I always start the story of my first sponsor by saying it was totally a “God thing.” I was living in Heidelberg, the only German city at the time with an English-speaking OA meeting. Being new, I needed a sponsor, so I used the Sponsor by Mail program, which was pages and pages of names and mailing addresses of people … Read More
Be a Coach! The word “sponsorship” has connotations in the outside world that do not fit my understanding of being an OA sponsor. For example, in immigration, a sponsor is legally responsible for a person entering a new country; there could exist a patriarchal implication that the sponsor is somehow superior to the sponsee. The word “sponsor” seems to confuse OA members more than … Read More
Phone Phenomenon My Higher Power’s grace led me to phone meetings, and after participating in a holiday phone marathon, I was hooked. By now, I’m sure I’ve called in to thousands of phone meetings! This may seem like a lot, but it’s easy because meetings are almost always available—there are three hundred phone meetings registered right now on oa.org. I may call … Read More