Carried Clearly
At an OA retreat, Heather responded to the question “How do you carry the message in meetings, as sponsors, with fellows, and in your everyday life?” We are happy to publish her response in Lifeline.
Readings
Reach Out: Support Within
An anonymous OA member writes in with simple ideas for Twelfth Step Within Day on December 12. “What support and encouragement can you offer a member who is struggling in program?”
An Atheist’s Prayer
“An Atheist’s Prayer calls for strength in letting go of self-will, surrendering to the guidance of the program, and cultivating gratitude, growth, and serenity.”
Self-Amends Prayer
When she was working Step Nine, Keri’s sponsor suggested she make amends to herself. Keri did so by writing a prayer that “lists positive characteristics that oppose my character defects . . . . By saying this prayer daily and out loud to my Higher Power, I am acting as if . . .”
Spiritual Rewrite
“I was complaining to my sponsor about the religious language of the Eleventh Step Prayer,” says one OA member. “She suggested I rewrite it in language that is meaningful to me.” Read the rewrite in this story.
Nothing Stopping Me
I heard the Second Step and had a spiritual experience that I’ve never forgotten,” says N.P., who went on to lose 75 pounds (34 kg) after joining OA. “Nothing could keep me from coming back.”
First Things
After four and a half years in OA, Rachel had experienced both solid abstinence and a period when life’s challenges had her surviving but not thriving. “What really propelled me through,” she says of this challenging time in her life, “was working another set of Steps.”
Sacred and Amazing Gift
Step Eleven is how we communicate with our higher power and how we receive wisdom. In a meditation phone meeting, Katherine’s meditation delivers a poignant message that it’s time to care of the body that has taken care of her in her compulsion.
Forward Motion
“I am learning,” says Liz, ”that if I review my emotions and my behavior daily, then responding to and resolving issues becomes easier and fewer matters build up over time.”
Loving Amends
John hated his grandmother for the way she treated him as a kid. And he ate over it. But by working Steps Eight and Nine and by doing a “forgiveness inventory,” he got to the bottom of it and was able to forgive. “This program is amazing,” he writes.