Barbara reflects on how to navigate the grieving process for a deceased OA fellow while upholding our Tradition of anonymity. After the funeral, she shares, “I spoke about the odd fact that even in death, our public face would have to remain incomplete.“
Jo used to steal food from the plates of hospital patients and eat their leftovers. Working the OA program, allowed him to come clean in Step Nine and find a new way of living.
Anonymous was a compulsive thief and a cheat. During his Step Nine, his sponsor made sure he did one thing each day. His Step work was so thorough, that his sponsor told him he didn’t have to go back to Step Nine.
This OA member explains how service can be “an incredible learning experience” and ”a great gift,” even when giving service means working with others who have differing opinions about what is best for OA as a whole.
Julie was abused as a child, but understand that everyone in OA has challenges in addition to overcoming compulsive eating. “For me, it all begins with willingness,” she says.
Want to be a good sponsor? Try starting small with this OA member’s suggestions.
Can you start sponsoring with only a month of abstinence? Yes. Can you start if you are only on Step Three? Yes. Can sponsoring someone only take 10 minutes a day? Yes. Will sponsoring fill your life with gratitude? You bet!
“One of the better moves I made early in recovery,” says Anonymous, ”was finding a sponsor, says Anonymous from California USA. “As a sponsor, I have been able to help others and pass one what was freely given to me. . . . and that has proved to be the key to a happy, spiritual, and satisfying way of life.”
Earlier in her program, Barbara E. says she was “extremely skeptical that I might ever become neutral around the foods that beckoned me or that I’d become a happier, less volatile woman.” But her sponsor persisted in feeding her OA wisdom, and Barbara was desparate, and so she listened. Simply put, Barbara says of her sponsor, “She was right.”
Christina made the mistake of waiting to get a sponsor . . . and she is sharing her story now so you don’t have to make that same mistake. “Don’t wait,” she says. “Recovery awaits!”