READING MY DAILY READERS HELPS ME IN MY RECOVERY EVERY DAY. 

Daily Reflection:  
"It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.” ~Epictetus  From FOR TODAY for March 29th ORIGINAL PAINTING by LORI B.

Having purchased a new laptop, I enrolled in an on-line Microsoft 365 course to help me become more proficient – 12 Lessons with a Final Exam. I felt pretty confident when I submitted the exam as there were only a few answers I was not certain were correct. Imagine my surprise, when the question I got marked wrong was one of the questions I was so sure was correct. I still would have selected the wrong answer no matter how many times I re-read the question. Only after having it marked wrong, could I see I misread the initial question as my mind continuously skipped over a vital word.

This certainty reminds me of my life living with my disease. I was convinced the problem was food and the solution was another trendy diet. If only I reached my goal weight, life would be perfect.

I am so grateful that I no longer live trapped in thinking that I have to be “right” or to know everything. It is ok to say, “I don’t know because my HP knows.” I just have to trust my HP,  work the OA program, not make assumptions, and keep coming back, one day at a time. 

Written by LORI B, Member-at-Large Region One

I was taught as a teenager to give back to the community that had helped my family through some very tough times. My little sister had an incurable disease that was shortening her life expectancy. The Anchorage community was amazing to us. They gave support to parents and families that were struggling financially and also offered fun activities for the kids. This is the foundation I grew up with and had my children participate in throughout their childhood. 

I came to OA with this background and when I was asked to give service at the meeting level after six months of being in the program I didn’t say no to the request. I have been in program now for over twenty-one years and I continue with service to this day. 

Service at the meeting level has been a joy for me. I have held all the positions and have also been a sponsor to many in the program. It took me a while to get comfortable with service, but it is a pleasure for me to do this and it gives me spiritual, emotional, and physical recovery. I have always held a service position at the meeting level, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. 

I held multiple positions at the Intergroup level. I would have to say that the most powerful position for my recovery was a WSBC delegate. This was many years ago that I went to WSBC in Albuquerque. There were so many people attending this event from all over the world. This service really talked to my heart and brought tears to my eyes many times during the week that I was there. I also got to visit the WSO in Rio Rancho, outside of Albuquerque to pick up literature for my meeting. I went into the office and on the side wall there was a picture of the world with colored pins in most of the countries designating how many OA members were in each city. I was overwhelmed when I said that. My son was standing next to me, and we both remarked on how many people that represented all over the world. Talk about not being alone in my disease! This was amazing to me. 

I was able to serve on the OA Region 1 Board as the Newsletter Editor starting in 2009. This was when the board was doing a lot of traveling to different locations in the region to carry the message. I was able to visit places I had never been to before and met people that I may not meet at WSBC or Convention. This was not an easy position to hold, but it was a growing time for me in recovery and I remember it well. The board members were amazing and very supportive. I could not have stayed in this position without them. This memory is what brings me to applying once again for a board position. I am excited to be 2nd Vice Chair and work with the current members on the board. I have assisted with the convention for the last three years and it was a great opportunity. 

I was once told that giving service is very spiritual. I didn’t believe it at the time, but I do now. Service has proven to me that I can do anything with the support and love of other OA members. I share this with my sponsees and encourage them to give service when they are able to fit it into their schedules. I do know that service is not for everyone, but if you look at it as just setting up chairs, putting out literature, or welcoming newcomers to the meeting it is not that time-consuming. Service can be very simple and only take a few minutes. This is how we keep OA alive for the still compulsive overeater who needs our support.

Giving service is a key tool for all OA members and helps strengthen our individual recovery. Attending meetings, calling, and taking calls from other members, and setting up chairs at meetings are all important types of service and do not require abstinence. - OA FAQs - 

Martha R 
Second Vice Chair

How many times have I gotten out of bed with my internal forecast "cloudy with chance of deluge?" Yesterday was one of those days!
Well, not exactly first thing in the morning. No, not yesterday! Actually my first thought was "Callie (my spoiled kitty ), who ever taught you 5:00 a.m. was the appropriate time to wake your owner up!?"

Things went downhill from there at lightening speed. You know...one of those hard to handle things that life "gifts" us with. I am sure you have experienced lots of these too.

What tools got me out of the funk that day?
My first tool was my favorite prayer...Oh, God!"
Secondly, I texted my sponsor asking if she had time to talk. As I waited for her to be free, I texted my long-term OA friend about my resentment/fear.

As  I talked with my sponsor  some of the feelings disappeared. Afterwards, I went to a friend I consider to be my non-OA sponsor/friend. Two more things diminished the feelings even further...the compassionate ear of a friend and the comfort of her kitty purring in my lap.

What did I learn that day? Life has moments of joy and pain and I have the choice about which I give force to.  Secondly, I learned that the tools of OA work. And lastly, I learned I can use life experience tools that are not on the official list.

J

​Jan E - Guest Blog

'​Like many people in the US, I celebrated a holiday where we celebrate our gratefulness with a big feast.   I was grateful on Thursday.   I am even more grateful today because I woke up abstinent.   This is a miracle that I did not have for many years, even in program.   I was able to enjoy my family, the football game, the parade and all the enjoyable parts of the holiday.  I served a good meal, including the usual dessert items to the normal eaters in my family and not only did I not eat these items, I didn't WANT to eat them. I didn't feel deprived or need to leave the room or anything like that.  No one but my fellows could even begin to understand how amazing that is.  What a gift that is.  I can say uncategorically that this is a gift because I could not stop myself from eating everything in sight no matter how many promises I made to myself or how many times I told myself I would he abstinent no matter what.  My own willpower is nonexistent when it comes to certain foods.  I have eaten when I did not want to eat more times than I can count - both in and out of program.  What is different today than those times when I thought I understood what being powerless over food means is that I finally understand that my main problem is in my head.   Dr. Silkworth says it beautifully.  I have an allergy of the body, which means I react abnormally to certain foods. That isn't my real problem though.   My real problem is that I have an obsession of the mind which compells to take that first compulsive bite.  This obsession is the voice that says that, "this time," I can handle it and "here's why. ."   It is this obsession that kept me returning to the food.   I have other allergies.  One that also ruined many a holiday season for me.  I am allergic to evergreen.   I end up sneezing and coughing and feeling pretty awful if I try to live with a real christmas tree in my home.  When the allergy tests found this allergy, my parents started using an artificial tree and I stopped being sick at Christmas.  When I became an adult, I didn't spend even a nanosecond considering using a real tree.  When I had children, I had many a concerned freind tell me how my children were being deprived of the whole going out into the woods to pick out a tree, etc.  Again, I didn't waste any time worrying about that.  I prefer not to feel sick during the holiday season.  Now, I have gone to bed feeling very sick from over stuffing myself with the goodies at the holiday season. Nothing says Christmas like throwing up and going back to eat more.   I continued to do this, even after coming to OA, and one of the rationalizations I used was that my children would he deprived if we didn't bake goodies in preparation for the holidays.  Imagine my surprise to see that Christmas still arrived, and was enjoyed by children, the first year we didn't do that.  When I finally understood that my real problem was the obsession, I began to pray for the obsession to be removed.   To my surprise, it was taken away and food stopped being the focus of the celebrations and abstinence just happened.  I can serve dessert at Thanksgiving. It is Monday morning and we still have quite a bit of those desserts left, waiting to be thrown out.   That never used to happen at my house.  I am so grateful for this gift.   So grateful, that I take the steps each day necessary to keep the obsession at bay.   I work the Steps and use the Tools.   Not perfectly by any stretch of the imagination.  Thankfully, my Higher Power doesn't require perfection from me.   

Happy December everyone, 
Lisa S.
Region One Secretary

Hello beloved fellow compulsive eaters:

I am in withdrawals, and it is bittersweet.

First, I am coming down to earth after having just attended the first face-to- face the Region One Assembly and Convention in four years.  I was in good company; more than two hundred other compulsive eaters seeking, and finding, recovery attended the Convention. Time in OA ranged from Old Timers with over 40 years to recently arrived newcomers, the most important persons in the rooms. A goal was that everyone left the convention with a sponsor. This goal was set because it ramps up going through the Twelve Steps to do it with a sponsor. I suspect that many people left also with a new, or renewed, abstinence from compulsive eating. Being with HP’s guiding over a weekend and immersed in OA at Convention or on a retreat strengthens our recovery. I know it has for me over my blessed 38 years in OA. It is that inspirational!  Come one, come all, to next year’s Region One Convention in beautiful Vancouver, Canada.

Secondly, my two-year position as Treasurer and serving on the Region One Board ended at Assembly last week.  Fortunately for me, it is a gradual ending because there is a training period for the new treasurer (who is doing great by the way).  One slogan I relate to is that “anything I ever let go of had claw marks all over it.”  It will be good for me to practice letting go of seeing what donations are coming in or preparing this month’s financial statement.   In this program I have learned I can let go and be grateful for the service as treasurer, and be eager for what is next.
I will put in my pitch for doing service at all levels of OA.  I am old-school and learned to do service by being discouraged from NOT doing service.  I heard that you can’t keep your abstinence unless you give it away.  That is not something I want to test out to see if it is true.

I’ll end with a passage from the AA Big Book chapter “Doctor Bob’s Nightmare” Dr. Bob writes: “I spend a great deal of time passing on what I learned to others who want and need it badly. I do it for four reasons:

1. Sense of duty.
2. It is a pleasure.
3. Because in so doing I am paying my debt to the man who took time to pass it on to me.
4. Because every time I do it I take out a little more insurance for myself against a possible slip.” 

​Carrie A.

When I first came into program, and heard OA had ‘tools’, I imagined me carrying around my very own ‘Bob the Builder’ toolbox. Today, I am ever grateful for all of these tools, but I have a passion for the tool of ‘writing’.

My written words are my truth. What I lack the courage to put out there in voice, comes extremely easy by pen. I found that whatever was going on in my crazy life, it liked to hang around in my head long after I quit yelling. The noise in my head would not ease until I put them to paper.

When I was a kid I used to find it funny that the space in my head was so much smaller than the space in a book of 100 pages, but I needed so many of those books to hold everything that was in my head.

Once the words are on the page in front of me, I can see feelings that I didn’t realize I had or patterns in my behavior and sometimes even solutions to a certain problem might show itself in my written word.

I can do whatever I want to with my written words. I can erase my words. What I cannot take back by voice, I can make disappear forever on paper. I can meditate with my words. I can tell stories with my written words.

And what about meditation? Our 11th step encourages us to meditate. ‘But how?’  I asked. How can I take all that stuff that’s buzzing around in my head and make it settle down long enough to meditate on it.

Meditation brings calm, insight and mental calmness even in difficult situations, in other words – Higher Power. I find it much easier to meditate when I have a piece of paper with the words on it that represent the problems I am trying to solve.

​What else can I do in writing? I can make amends through my written words. I can offer up my writing for others to read. Reading is still one of few remaining things that are free in this world. I can get creative with my written words; I can make others feel good with my writing. There are many benefits to be found in writing and the one that keeps giving back is reading. Writing is my lifeline. And finally…

I can take a single word (the word ‘Amazing’ for example) and build a write around it.

What's Amazing?
what's amazing?
discovering things you never imagined
like oranges used to be green
12+1 = 11+2, and "TWELVE PLUS ONE"
is an anagram for "ELEVEN PLUS TWO"
like pop-rocks and Wi-Fi
that a green caterpillar becomes a blue butterfly
and that I am stuck on Band-Aids
cause Band-Aids stuck on me

what's most amazing is when you finally
find your person
and you become somebody’s somebody
because you've known all your life that
you fall for a person through their eyes
and that one day you would lock eyes
and from then on
they talk about you in their sleep.
​Amazing!

Diane D
​Technology Coordinator