Higher Power Spirituality Twelve Pointers My understanding is that a spiritual awakening is a radical internal rearrangement of attitudes, priorities, desires, and be…
Abstinence Garden Variety I’ve lived most of my life in New Jersey, the Garden State, so you’d think I’d be used to eating an abundance of homegrown f…
Steps Traditions Make a Right Turn If I wasn’t stuffing my mouth with food, I was “verbally vomiting” out of it! My former purpose in “venting” wound up reveal…
Steps Facing the Negatives Step Four: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Life is much different than I ever imagined it would …
Traditions Autonomous Solution Tradition Four: Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or OA as a whole. I worked Step Fou…
Telephone Tools & Concepts Call, Read, Write, Share I was sitting at my kitchen counter doing job-related work. I’d been struggling with food, and I had spent a lot of that day…
Recovery Working the Program Action and Potential When I think of powerlessness, I get an image of myself as a lightbulb alone in a box on the shelf. I’m powerless, but I hav…
Literature Tools & Concepts Real Magic I am contemplating the last workbook question of the Twelfth Step: “What is the message I am living?” (The Twelve Step Workb…
Steps Traditions Trigger Food Taboo Q. Why is mentioning a specific food or restaurant considered a trigger in an OA meeting? Is there an official OA stance on …
Recovery Working the Program Greater than Gold When my sponsee and I finished the Twelfth Step, we looked at each other and said, “Now what?” It felt more like a letdown t…
How OA Changed My Life Recovery True Freedom When a fellow OA member suggested I reflect on what true freedom looks like for me, I discovered I could probably write a book. Before OA, I truly felt I already had it in the form of a solid career, … Read More
Higher Power Spirituality Stepping-Stones, Nuggets, and Gems Spirituality is the solution to our problem of powerlessness, and we find this solution in the Twelve Step program of recovery. I’ve experienced three stepping-stones in this process: Amen, Amends, Am… Read More
The Road Narrows My twenty-ninth birthday in OA is approaching, and it is cause for renewed reflection about my program. I spoke to my sponsor a week ago and mentioned to her that I was thinking of not taking a candle this year. Other OA members on their birthdays pitch about life changes: weddings, kids, jobs, financial gain, or acquisition of cars. I … Read More
Share It: Powerful Shares, Joyful Reading, Pages and Prayers Powerful Shares I wanted to share how sad I am to hear about the discontinuation of Lifeline. It has literally been a lifeline to me. I am one of the ones who answered your 2018 subscription appeal, and I recently renewed my subscription and will cherish every last issue. Thank you for the articles about “The Joys of Retreats and … Read More
Recovery Beyond Measure In a few days, I will celebrate thirty-eight years of recovery in OA. Today my goal is health, sanity, and wellness, not a size 8. Physically, my body has been a normal size for many years. G-d has removed the compulsion for what I call “the hard stuff”—the stuff you see at the grocery checkout counter. I have reached a … Read More