For Today: September 21st

We lop away, that bearing boughs may live.

William Shakespeare

If I kept the same ideas with which I came to OA, where would I be today? Values I acquired as a child and still follow today need questioning.  The child I once was can no longer run my life.  I want to give up what no longer serves me---the escapes and fantasies, the fears and the need to control.  The changes that have come about since I arrived in OA are evidence of growth and hope for a still better life.  If love and friendship, spontaneity and closeness are to be nurtured, dead branches must be cut away.

Working this program helps me distinguish what I no longer need from what is important, to cut away old beliefs so that new truths may be revealed and a light and useful spirit may grow strong.

For Today:  Cutting away old growth to make room for the new is what steps four through ten are all about.  Am I doing it?

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When I was compulsively eating, I couldn't see the forest through the trees.........there were too many dead branches in my way! I never pruned.............I didn't want to face reality.........it felt easier to live with escapes and fantasies.  This is the illusion of addiction: that it's an 'easier' way.........until the addiction takes OVER the person's entire LIFE and becomes the MASTER.

"The lust for comfort; that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and becomes a host, and then a master"

Sooner or later, it's time to give up the old ways & take on some new ideas. Otherwise, I say trapped in addictive behaviors & live as a child.

For today, I pray to stay an adult.