Newcomers Tiger-Free For me, some of the sayings of OA turned out to be myths. Myth 1: “We have to walk the tiger three times a day and put it back into its cage.” This suggested to me that I would have to fight and control my disease evermore. But I am powerless over food. “Our Invitation to You” states, “As a … Read More
Working the Program Know-How I don’t really know how a computer works. People with comprehension greater than mine designed this amazing tool. But I don’t need to understand all the intricacies of a computer in order to use one. If I just follow simple directions, I can do pretty amazing things with words and pictures, such as send and receive messages in a flash, … Read More
Steps First Steps Recently I was visiting with my 1-year-old granddaughter. I noticed that she kept kneeling, sitting, reaching down to the floor and then back up, sitting, kneeling, and pushing herself up. She kept doing these movements, up and down, up and down, over and over in all different ways, almost like she was warming up for something that she was getting … Read More
Newcomers Soaking It In Gaining recovery can be compared to making pickles. If I put a cucumber into a brine solution, soaking it consistently and continuously, then gradually and inevitably it becomes a pickle. So it is with recovery. Even if I’m afraid to get a sponsor and work the Twelve Steps, I can still accomplish quite a bit just by going to meetings. … Read More
Recovery I Am Home Isolation and hope stand out to me today, in part because of the Voices of Recovery reading on isolation and fellowship (p. 191) and in part because eight years ago today I surrendered my food to my Higher Power. Today I carry a message of hope as I enjoy a life vastly beyond my wildest dreams. One reason I come … Read More
Traditions Trust—Tried and True Just what are “trusted servants?” We read Tradition Two every week in our meeting. It states in part, “Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.” While I was attending an OA region meeting, it became very clear to me just what that “trusted” bit means. Looking at the leaders of the meeting, watching them be sane, reasonable, and … Read More
Traditions Building Balance For me, the beauty of unity is realizing I’m not alone in this disease of compulsive eating. I never knew that others had the same beast inside, compelling them to eat everything in sight—I felt like a freak because of it, a freak inside and out, my heavy body an outward manifestation of the obsession within. Just knowing I’m not … Read More
Fellowship Recovery Uncategorized Stepping Up Attending World Service Business Conference as a delegate, I discovered how much responsibility is involved in shaping and maintaining the OA recovery framework from which we all benefit. Every policy and piece of literature goes through an extensive process that includes several layers of review and revision. Ordinary OA members participate in that development process, so our program’s resources are the … Read More
Traditions Course to Consensus We may be a group of abstinent and recovering compulsive overeaters, but our individual defects seem to be quick to surface when important decisions need to be made, especially decisions that affect our group and meeting format. Thank goodness we have the Traditions to guide us. “Our common welfare should come first,” but Tradition One is hard to follow sometimes … Read More
Traditions Get Together I had a wonderful experience with some fellow OA members recently. We showed up at our meeting place and could not get in. The door had a timer lock with no key, and it did not open. How is this wonderful? I’m getting to that. We waited ten minutes after the meeting start time, then decided to head to a … Read More