In Twelve Step recovery programs, the message isn’t to be occasionally honest, or to try to be honest, but to practice “rigorous honesty.” But what does this actually mean? In the rooms of OA recovery, I learned that “honesty” is defined as “devoid of all motives to deceive.” If we look more closely at Step […]
Category Archives: Step Eleven
Falling Into My Higher Power
I am sitting in the shade of a tree overlooking the water of the Niagara River as it rushes toward the American Falls. It’s the last day of my vacation, so I came back to this park to meditate for a few minutes, to connect with serenity, and capture my thoughts before I finish getting […]
Two-Way Prayer
Two-plus years into my abstinence and recovery, I began to struggle. My food was in order, I was attending meetings and sponsoring, but something was missing. Using food to manage my emotions was pretty much a thing of the past, my life was much simpler and less stressful, and I found more possible to accept […]
Meditation Message
Meditation Message A crystal dish with a pewter lid tarnished black with age. The curved sculpted handle and carved violets grace the heavy, domed cover. The fluted, soap-sized bowl, rests after 100 years of service amid the bottles and brushes on dressing tables. A Victorian powder box, from my father’s mother and her mother before. […]
Tool of Sponsorship
“We ask a sponsor to help us through all three levels of our program of recovery: physical, emotional, and spiritual.” – Tools of Recovery Pamphlet The first time I heard about OA, I said, “Is that a group thing? Groups don’t work for me.” I thought I had all the answers and believed that self-reliance […]