Convention Fellowship The Funnest Thing I’ve Ever Done In 1995, I’d been in OA for seven years, and I got a new car. An OA friend and I decided to drive to the World Service Convention in Minneapolis. Although the trip planner we used said it was twenty hours away, it took us thirty-three hours to drive there. We stayed for thirty-three hours, and we drove another thirty-three … Read More
Fellowship Recovery Viva OA I do not have an adequate vocabulary to describe Region Eight’s first international assembly and convention in South America where we met in Medellín, Colombia. Board members, region reps, and committee chairs began arriving on Wednesday, greeted at the airport by OA members with signs that read, “Bienvenidos, OA.” We were driven to the hotel, and as we arrived we … Read More
Fellowship Recovery Soak Up the Recovery and Fellowship I always get excited just thinking about World Service Convention. These are events not to miss! I have attended almost every World Service Convention since 1995, and I’ve attended lots of workshops at them, but it is the connection with other members that keeps me coming back. My first Convention, in 1995, was themed “Heart of Recovery,” and it was … Read More
Recovery Relationships A Service Act of Desperation “Any form of service—no matter how small— that helps reach a fellow sufferer adds to the quality of our own recovery.” — The Tools of Recovery When I introduced myself as a newcomer at a meeting, I did my first real act of service. I asked for help—a selfish act of desperation. Most of us find desperation impossible to ignore, … Read More
How OA Changed My Life Recovery Dancer in the Mirror For years, I’d walk my dogs at a local park. Nearly every night, we’d pass a recreation room where there was a Latin dance aerobics class, and I’d watch from a distance. I didn’t want to invite the humiliation of being a morbidly obese woman watching people exercise. I had been ridiculed in public before. In the mirrors, I saw … Read More
Recovery Relationships All the Same Age Although I’ve been a very thankful member of this wonderful Fellowship for two and a half years, I still feel like a veritable babe in arms. I know we are all toddlers until we have been abstinent about five years. I look forward with alacrity to the day I’m emotionally of an age to join the OA kindergartners! Maybe since … Read More