Tools & Concepts Higher Purrer Stanley is my “new” 10-year-old cat. He keeps my action plan in line and helps me work my program: trust God, clean house, and help others. Since he is the purrfect lap cat, I am reluctant to shoo him off when he joins me for morning tea. While I wasn’t willing before to sit quietly for prayer and meditation, I … Read More
Gratitude Recovery Sweet and Simple I’ve struggled with my weight since I was 5 years old. At that time I heard my father comment, “No fat daughter of mine will ever be seen in a tutu!” Those words would haunt me for fifty years. At the time I heard them, I didn’t know I was fat; I was only in kindergarten. I had not yet … Read More
Recovery Relationships A New Love Song In my late 30s, I got way too excited about writing songs with my church’s music director. For several months, as we collaborated, I flirted with him and got enmeshed with his dream of selling songs commercially. I’d always been overweight, but during this time I was so alight with creative and sexual energy that I barely slept or ate, … Read More
Gratitude Recovery Lessons Learned I just celebrated my sixth OA birthday and took time to reflect upon what I have learned. I am sending this to Lifeline per my sponsor’s direction. My recovery has taught me: I am a woman in recovery. I am no longer a victim. There are no mistakes. Everyone I meet is here to show me something if I am … Read More
Literature Momentous At my first OA meeting, a kind soul offered to buy me a book of my choosing from the OA library. I had no idea what I was even doing there, and every piece of reading material looked foreign and, quite frankly, just weird. I rifled through the stacks of books, and one caught my eye like a beacon in … Read More
Steps The Enough Prayer Let me have faith so I will love as if there will always be love enough for me and I have never been hurt. Let me have faith so I will be a friend, as if my friends have always been here and I have never been alone. Let me have faith so I will eat as if there will … Read More
Steps Connection Bridge Step Eight: Made a list of all persons we had harmed and become willing to make amends to them all. The list of people I had harmed was very fresh in my mind the day I walked into OA. In fact, it was branded on my conscience and burned fiercely as shame whenever I encountered someone I had harmed. But … Read More
Spirituality Want List Food tortured me from youth until I was 73 years old. It took me thirty years to make Step One. One day, three different Twelve Step friends suggested I write what I wanted from OA. Three different people on the same day? Sounds like a message from my Higher Power, whom I call Beloved. Here is what I wrote: I … Read More
Atheists & Agnostics Having Faith When I feel empty, alone, uncertain and frightened, I need to act as if some force in the universe exists that will guide me. People search for certainty in many places and things outside of themselves, but if I trust that intuitive voice within, I know what is right for me. I get in touch with that voice at quiet … Read More