Morning Crossing When I drew this picture, I realized that I was like the baby loon on its mother’s back. If I try to venture out alone, I am facing a lot of danger from my disease, which hides below the surface. So every morning, I have to turn over my will to God and ride along, safe because God cares for … Read More
Light Wash Step 7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. I have a habit of checking how clean a drinking glass really is by holding it up to the light. A glass that looks so clean when out of the bright light can actually be very dirty, covered in fingerprints and all sorts of marks—it’s not fit to drink from. It makes me think of … Read More
Presently Unchained The OA program encourages us to live one day at a time. In other words, that says to me, “Live in today.” I heard a cute story about a man who was dragging a chain behind him on the sidewalk. Another man asked him, “Why are you dragging that chain?” To which he replied, “Have you ever tried pushing one … Read More
Principle Focus This morning, I picked up my OA Twelve and Twelve to read Tradition One because I needed help with a challenging situation at work. I know how well Tradition One works to keep meetings strong and united, and I needed help working as a team with a colleague. When a conflict or difference of opinion comes up, “Tradition One guides … Read More
Define “Meaningful” Step Six: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character I just celebrated my fourteenth year in OA. That’s amazing to me and I’m so grateful that my obsessions with food, overeating, and dieting have almost always been lifted—or I can use Tools or white-knuckle it until the obsession passes, which it quickly does. I have … Read More
Hard, Healing, Emotional Work Step Five: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. I recently finished Step Five with my sponsor. I’ve done a Step Five before, but it’s been over a year since my last one. This time it was hard. Really hard. Those of us who have done a Step Five recall the … Read More
Awakening Began Step Four: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Working the Twelve Steps of the OA program is what helped me most in recovery. For me, great help came from working the Fourth Step because it helped me get in touch with some very traumatic things that happened in my past. At first, the memories of these things … Read More
First Willingness, Then Ability The other day my sponsee was telling me how grateful she was to have me in her life. I had to agree—I was also grateful. Had I not been willing to be a backup for her sponsor then none of the following would have come to pass. This member, who was in her second pregnancy, needed to reach out by … Read More
Love Would Restore Me “Came to believe . . .” I came to meetings and I came to believe many things. I came to believe there were people like me who had this same problem and found a solution. I came to believe that whatever I’d been trying wasn’t working and probably never would work. I came to believe I could try to the … Read More
Never and Always Step One: We admitted we were powerless over food—that our lives had become unmanageable. When I read about Step One and think about my life—my crazy eating habits, the mental obsession I’ve struggled with—I can freely, honestly, humbly admit that I am definitely powerless over food. I have tried to control my eating most of my adult life and have … Read More