For Today: Jul y 28th

That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm, quiet interchange of sentiments.

Samuel Johnson

How good it feels to be with OA people. Whether in a meeting, at a coffee shop gathering or on the telephone, the talk is a quiet sharing unlike the conversations we know on the “outside.”  We discuss endlessly what the illness is like and what the program has done and is doing for us.  If we participate long enough we hear our story, or at the very least, find something with which we can strongly identify.  Even the most competitive people eventually find that there is no need to impress anyone, to prove that they are better than anyone else.

The principles of the program, embodied in the steps and traditions, make OA a community of loving, caring people whose only goal is freedom from compulsive overeating for themselves and others.

For Today:  The company of OA members is a precious gift, available to me at any time I want it.

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The disease of compulsive overeating can feel very desolate…..very few people understand the dynamics of how we think and react towards food.  Most think it’s a simple matter of ‘willpower’ to just say no to excess.   Nothing at ALL about the disease is simple.  "Cunning, baffling & powerful" is more like it.

I felt alone with my eating issues until I walked into my first OA meeting. In that room, I connected with a bunch of people who were all in the same boat as I was! I was finally ‘home’…..I came to a place where I was understood AND accepted for who & what I am.  

When COEs get together & share their stories, we finally feel like we fit in somewhere. Being the odd man out for most of my life, it's wonderful to find a sense of belonging.  Sharing our struggles and our triumphs together makes for an unbreakable bond of friendship & camaraderie.

2+2=6  Together, we are better and more powerful than we are alone.

For today, I am grateful to BE a compulsive overeater and part of a fellowship that understands me.