Sponsoring Tools & Concepts Working the Program Partners in Recovery There are many different ways to share experience, strength, and hope in the OA Fellowship. As two OA members in recovery, we would like to share a way that has worked for us. We have been calling our relationship “Partners in Recovery.” Together, we have developed a unique relationship that is separate from a sponsor/sponsee relationship, although we still continue … Read More
Literature Tools & Concepts Affirming Words Is it just me? The cover of the January 2020 Lifeline is so affirming. The words I so need to live by and live with are spread all over. I have heard so many say, “It’s just words” or “It’s just a slogan,” which, to me, is very sad. Those words and slogans are signposts and my way of life. They … Read More
Service Tools & Concepts Feeling A Part Of I resisted doing service—the same way I’d once resisted writing out a food plan for the day. And I hated the slogan “service is slimming,” which some members chanted during the reading of the Tools in meetings. But my program was faltering in all areas: physical, emotional, and spiritual. I was forgetting all the important parts of the program, forgetting … Read More
Abstinence Taking Inventory By my age, I’ve learned that setting down New Year’s resolutions is a hopeless and futile exercise. Last year, however, as a new calendar year began, I realized that I needed to take inventory of my life and my whole program, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. I needed to be honest and admit that something I had been rationalizing was a … Read More
Recovery Fad Free In the July 2019 issue, I read an OA slogan that was new to me “Eat light and feel right; Eat right and feel light!” Really?! Do we need a slogan about food in OA? Whatever happened to the basic idea that “we are not a ‘diet club?’” (Overeaters Anonymous, Third Edition, p. 2). What impression will this new slogan … Read More
Recovery Working the Program Strong Weave, Durable Fabric I have been working with the Voices of Recovery Workbook and my sponsor suggested I submit my response to the questions of January 8: “How would I describe my recovery tapestry? What are the program threads I’ve used to weave it?” (p. 4). I am so lucky to have found this program. I would have to describe my recovery tapestry as … Read More
Gratitude Recovery Three Sayings I get to write this article. I am so grateful I learned this affirmation early in my recovery. It started with a phone call to my sponsor. When I complained that I had to go to work, she said, “You get to work.” When I told her I had to do laundry, go to the bank, clean the house, or … Read More
Literature Tools & Concepts Slogan Direction The Third and Eleventh Steps were difficult for me in the beginning because of the word “will”; “our will” in the Third Step and “His will” in the Eleventh. “Will” sounds so demanding, definitive, coercive, and exacting. However, in the process of writing about Step Three, I came to understand it as “God’s direction.” I believe God is always trying … Read More
Sponsoring Tools & Concepts Perfect Meetings, Perfect Sponsors Our program works without us working it perfectly. I’m celebrating thirty years of abstinence, and I don’t even know how “working it perfectly” looks. Taking awkward baby steps, clumsily using the Tools, and making a haphazard job of the Steps and Traditions is enough for me. Expecting perfection from ourselves and others can cost us our recovery. I’ll be blunt: … Read More
Recovery Relationships Different Paths to Unity Editors note: Below are two world service contributions from OA members in support of our Strategic Plan. My name is Heidi, and I’m a compulsive overeater—a short sentence, but one I could not say for many years. During my childhood, I was often alone because my parents worked full-time. My big sister did well in school, and my parents always … Read More