I’ve been in OA for 30 years. Over time in recovery listening to speakers at meetings, retreats, and conferences, I’ve heard many ways to express the levels of competence in recovery. One of the ways I marked my early progress was to notice my turn-around time. I had a long history of overreacting to the […]
Category Archives: Doing service
Tradition 10: Why Not Talk about Outside Issues?
Sometimes it seems that the 12 Steps overshadow the Traditions. However, understanding the traditions and their influence on meeting guidelines helps keep our meetings safe. A saying in program quips that the steps keep us from killing ourselves and the traditions keep us from killing other people. I had a humbling experience several years ago […]
Achieving Fit Spiritual Condition
OA’s 12 step program of recovery from compulsive eating promises members “a life beyond our wildest dreams.” While that promise appears in various forms in our literature, the expression “fit spiritual condition,” comes at the end of the 10th step promises on pages 84 and 85 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous: “And we […]
Serenity at the Beach
I came into OA in February 1989. I stayed for twenty-one years through periods of abstinence and relapse, my wedding, jobs, having children, and the death of my father. I shared my problems and my willingness to work on my program. Eventually, I’d realize that the problems I obsessed about were solved. I’d move forward […]
Abstinent Holidays
“Once we become abstinent, the preoccupation with food diminishes and in many cases leaves us entirely.” — Our Invitation To You. Before I came into OA, my disease didn’t know the difference between a holiday and a regular day. Any Tuesday in the middle of September was an excuse to overeat. Holidays just made it […]