A virtual OA meeting stood out like a lighthouse’s beacon. An inner voice said, “This is where I wish for you to be.”
Many years ago, another Twelve Step program set the pattern for me to continue living with a now recovering alcoholic in a marriage that has lasted 56 years to date. It was through this program that I discovered OA, but another decade would pass before I began gaining a true concept of what OA was all about. Though OA meetings were attended weekly and the body was present, the mind was elsewhere, perhaps too broken to adhere to the basics. No sponsor was sought, no Steps were taken, and though there was a spiritual connection, the power line ran a long distance from the Power House (my Higher Power).
November 14th, 2022, was a turning point. As my tears fell rapidly, my loving husband heard my mantra, “I can’t do it! I can’t do it!” He understood his wife’s lifelong battle with compulsive overeating and addictive behaviors. Cuddling her in his warm arms, he said, “No, hon, you can’t do it alone. I suggest you go back to OA. You need the help of your Higher Power and the fellowship that OA brothers and sisters can offer.” He went off to his own Twelve Step program meeting that day. I browsed the internet, and a virtual OA meeting in San Antonio, Texas, stood out like a lighthouse’s beacon. An inner voice said, “This is where I wish for you to be.”
“No, hon, you can’t do it alone. I suggest you go back to OA. You need the help of your Higher Power and the fellowship that OA brothers and sisters can offer.”
It has been four months since that November day, and I’ve been attending the San Antonio meetings on Mondays and Fridays from my home in Florida. I found a sponsor within this group and have worked the Twelve Steps one day at a time. I became abstinent from sugar on the first day and my abstinence has reigned due to me working the OA program properly this time around.
Many years ago, the Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions, and Twelve Concepts were mere words, repeated over and over again. The Big Book took up space and needed dusting from time to time. Today, because of a sponsor’s teachings and guidance, the Twelve Steps have come alive, vibrant, and bountiful. Promises! The Steps contain wonderful promises to those who wish to go to any lengths to step on the path to recovery, from vanity to sanity, one day at a time:
- We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
- We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
- We will comprehend the word serenity.
- We will know peace.
- No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
- That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
- We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
- Self-seeking will slip away.
- Our whole attitude and outlook on life will change.
- Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us.
- We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
- We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
All of these promises have come to fruition within these four months of abstinence and daily working the program. Ever grateful to the Power House, my brothers and sisters in the three OA weekly meetings, and the uplifting words via OA literature, my cup runneth over. I’ve come home.
—A.M., Florida USA
